


Mage for you

by kamiiireru



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Action, Developing Relationships, Dominance, Doomed Timelines, F/M, Fantasy, Friendship, Genocide, Healing, Mage Reader, Magic, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multiverse, Protectiveness, Reader Has Powers, Reader-Insert, Revolution, Romance, Sci-Fi, Skeleton Puns, Slow Burn, World Build, first fanfic, impending doom, pacifist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21681259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamiiireru/pseuds/kamiiireru
Summary: The sudden torrential downpour was hindering your escape. Navigating through the thick foliage was getting more difficult with each step. The noise from the rain along with the raging river besides your path was enough to hide yourself.Or so you thought..."I found her!!"You try to turn to the opposite direction of the voice, but the dirt underneath you gives way. Sending you down, towards the river below.The last thing that you hear was someone shouting your name in the distance, until the cold water envelopes you whole.You kick and push your arms against the harsh waters, trying your best to remain afloat, but the current is just too strong. The only good thing about this is, it's carrying you far away from your captors. You keep on thrashing upwards while Inhaling unwanted water as you try to bob your head above. But it's all too much. You're getting tired. Black spots starts to appear in your vision and your chest feels heavy. Your lungs stings, as if you're trying to inhale needles instead of air.Amidst the pain and darkness you hear a voice, getting closer."BROTHER! I THINK I FOUND A HUMAN!"
Relationships: Sans (Underfell)/Reader, Sans (Underswap)/Reader, Sans (Undertale)/Reader, Sans (Undertale)/You, Sans/Reader, sans/female reader
Comments: 155
Kudos: 317





	1. Evergreen

The emptiness of the abandoned hallway echoes in your wake. Pushing the rackety old cleaning cart that's been missing its front left wheel while carefully balancing the bucket of water was a difficult task. Difficult but not impossible. As you set a slow and careful pace you've finally reach the end of the hallway, breathing out a sigh of relief.

Wiping away the sweat on the top of your forehead with the end your sleeve, you decided to take a breather to survey the area.

The left wing of the academy has long been forgotten. The hallway was littered with cracked tiles and rubble, by the looks of it, it could've been a glorious black and white marbled flooring back in its prime. Old and broken chairs and desks scattered about the area, barricading the beautifully carved tall mahogany doors, to which you assume must be the old classrooms. You noticed that nature has also been at play. A steady beam of sunlight can be seen through the broken stained-glass windows which welcomed the vines from the outside, spreading along the walls, the pillars, the floor and everywhere you can lay your eyes on. It was eerily beautiful at the same time intimidating.

This vast hallway was yours alone to clean, using nothing but the cleaning essentials from the old cart. A bucket of water, two old broomsticks, a dustpan, a few pieces of dirty old rags, a couple of trash bags and a mop.

"Time to get to work" you thought, taking the broom from the cart.

Rolling up your sleeves, you decided to start by sweeping the rubble and make a clear pathway from the start towards the end of the hallway.

It was tedious sure, but you were making progress. You enjoy these little moments of silence all to yourself. It makes fulfilling your task quicker.

  


An hour and a half later you're almost done with the pathway. You can finally see the floor clearly. Smiling you inspected your work.

  


So far, so good.

  


As you were about to continue your task at hand, you stop. Sweeping the gravel to the side, you spot a small sprout ebbing its way between the dirt and debris.

  


Eyes widening you place the broom against the wall. Crouching down and inspecting the small plant carefully.

  


You scanned the perimeter, It was at the center of the hallway, in the wide open space.

  


Where everyone could see.

  


But it's just you here.

  


Alone.

  


You silently contemplated. It's been a while, and you need to take a break at some point. Plus, it's too early, chances that someone would go all the way out here from the Great Hall is almost impossible.

  


  


Right?

  


  


  


Right.

  


  


With that in mind you breathe out a sigh of relief, replacing the nervous tension with anticipating glee.

Folding your legs neatly, you sat near the small plant. Just as always you take a deep breath and close your eyes.

You focus on the warmth that's within your chest.

Placing your hands in between your sternum, you slowly breathe out. Feeling the warm and tingling sensation arise on the surface of your chest, spreading all around you. Reaching the top of your head, down to your toes, and reaching the tip of your fingertips.

Warmth engulf your whole being. As if being submerge in lukewarm water along with the smell of spring and honeydew in the air.

Finally opening your eyes, you smile gleefully.

Your eyesight sharper than before, your skin has that certain ethereal faint glow, as if being bathe in sunlight, slowly fading away.

You look at the small plant, smiling over it. In this state, you can now focus on your task at hand.

Using the same concentration, you did a while ago, you tried to channel that towards your fingertips hovering over the small plant.

Pushing that warmth towards the small and fragile plant, a bright green glow begins to surround it.

The ground around it made a light tremor, and ever so slowly the stem begins to elongate. The leaves begin to expand, new stems begin to sprout. The once small plant begins to grow inch by inch.

You smile wide, not losing focus as the plant grows and forms small buds around it. The buds take form into small green orbs.

As it expands, the color begins to turn into a beautiful shade of red and the once round buds becomes plump.

  


"Oh!" You thought "It's a---"

  


"Is that a tomato?"

  


You halt.

Turning your head so fast, you almost gave yourself a whiplash.

You look for the source of the sound.

It was...

  


"Jesus!" You screamed.

  


"No, just me." She says, smirking.

  


Ignoring her joke, you furrowed your eyebrows and stand up.

"Aislinn...What are you even doing here? And at this hour no doubt." You say in disbelief.

  


She usually wakes up just before lunch or if she has chores to do in the morning. Which she usually skips.

  


"I was about to check up on you," she shrugs casually while walking towards you. "Thought you might need some help, seeing how the new head girl, Meredith," she made a disgruntling sound after mentioning her name, "gave this chore to you as a punishment. All because you hid a dinner roll for poor little Lottie." She sighs dramatically, finally stopping in front of you "But...I'm seeing that you're liking this punishment quite a lot actually." She raises one of her eyebrows.

  


"Well...I---" you started,

"What have we talked about?" Folding her arms in front of her and looking down at you.

"I know Ash, that's why---"

"You deliberately went with it anyway?"

"But---"

"You thought that there wouldn't be anyone coming here?"

"Yes, I wasn't ex--"

"You didn't expect someone would--"

"But it's you." You cut her off. Making your voice louder.

She stops talking and just looks at you.

"It's just you..." You whisper.

  


"Yeah, but what if it wasn't?" She asks loudly as she steps closer. You look down at the floor.

"What if it wasn't me who have found you?" Her voice was much softer this time. She puts her slender fingers underneath your chin and carefully tilts your head up, her blue gray round eyes full of worry as you made eye contact "What would you do?"

Guilt was all you felt as you answer her truthfully. "I... I don't know..." You say, crestfallen. "I'm sorry...I-I wasn't thinking it through when I did it."

You felt her arms move around you, hugging you close to her chest. You move your hands behind her back in return.

"It's alright, I'm sorry too. For...uh, raising my voice like that." She sighs "It must've been hard keeping it all to yourself, not able to use your gift out in the open. But you know what will happen if they find out about it right? So, you must be extra careful. I'm just glad that I was the one who found you not the others."

You nod. You'll be taken away from the institute, from your friends, and Aishlinn. You might get sold or worst...probably experimented on.

"I just...I just don't know what I'll do if they take you away from me..." she tightens her hold on you.

You smile and snuggle in front of her shirt. "Me too, you're the closest thing that I have here as a family."

You tried to look up at her and you saw a fleeting emotion shift across her face, but it was too quick before you can comprehend what it was.

Instead Ash just smiles at you and kisses the top of your head before letting you go completely.

"Now then," she squats and plucks the newly grown tomato from the stem.

She throws one towards you and you quickly catch it. You were kinda used to her little antics, your dexterity has become much more efficient because of it. She plucks one for herself and bites right into it. You look at her before taking a bite for yourself.

  


Chomp

  


It's kind of...hard.

Well, you were expecting that since you weren’t fully finished growing it.

"It's still delicious though," she says, reading your expression.

"Thanks, wasn't expecting this little guy to sprout in here actually." You wave around your hands around the area, "It's kind of amazing,"

She laughs "You think that's amazing? How about that thing that you just did to it?" She gestures to the plant "Still can't believe that you're able to do that up until now. It's so cool! You're so cool!" She beams at you.

Warmth rose to your cheeks, you weren't used to people complimenting you. Ash does it every chance she could get. You chuckle and fiddle with your fingers, a nervous habit you never got over when you were little, "W-well...it's nothing really, but uh...yeah...thank you..." You stutter out.

"You're adorable."

You blush even deeper and look down, you forgot you still have the tomato in your hand and decided to hide it inside your pocket for later.

"Oh, by the way, I almost forgot!" She spares you from the flattery and gobbles up her tomato, in three quick bites. She instantly leaps up from her spot towards you while scrambling something from her pocket.

"I got the goods," she says mischievously while wiggling her eyebrows.

You gasp as she cups both of your hands together and pour tiny little seeds on to it.

"Don't tell me you got these in the Garden shed, again." You chuckle. Probably asking one of the younger girls to do it for her no doubt.

  


"Not just that! But I've found an empty plot of land not too far from here." She continues, "I figured since that time of the year is nearing, you're going to need it." Patting your head.

"Thank you, but you don't have to do it all the time you know? I can just trade Garden duties with someone on that day." You smile at her while tucking the seeds in your hoodie's inner pocket.

"No." She immediately rebuttals with a deadpan stare. "You almost got caught that time. You wouldn't imagine how weird it was to explain to everyone why suddenly everything grew too fast. I'm just lucky everyone agreed to what I said about the shrubs being replanted."

You sigh. She's right.

Ash had to do damage control when one of the girls that tended the garden before you questioned about it.

You hated that she had to lie for your sake.

But being Ash has its own perks, being popular is one of them, and easily swaying people is another. Everyone likes her. She can easily become your best friend or worst enemy if you ever cross her. Even the staff in the institute finds her endearing. Her charming and strong personality makes her stand out from everyone else.

Other than that, she's breathtakingly beautiful. Long black silky straight hair just above her waist, tied high in a ponytail. A slender athletic figure, that's very apparent on the sleeveless white top that's also showing off her gorgeous tanned arms, coupled with her favorite tight fitted jeans that she always wears. She's amazingly cool. You're proud to call her your best friend.

"That or having a very high fever which got you sent to the hospital in an ambulance. Yeah, not going to happen on my watch." She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow.

"Okay, okay. I got it. We do it your way." You lift your hands in surrender and nodded. Ash can be so overprotective sometimes. But you love it that she cares for you so much.

She nods once, as if making her point clear and walks over to the cleaning cart to grab the other broom.

"Let's get this over with before the lunch bell rings."

"Yeah," agreeing you grabbed the broom you left on the side of the wall.

"Also, Ash..."

"Yeah?" She replies, looking up from her task.

"I really am sorry, about what I did earlier. I know you mean well, and you were just cautious,"

She smiles back "I know you are, but please..."

She turns to you fully. Her posture straightens at the pause.

"Don't ever...EVER do that inside the institute again, especially in here. Or anywhere else, unless I'm around. Got it?" She pleas.

"...okay. Got it." You respond meekly nodding.

"Good, now let's get back to work." She finishes, sweeping the rubble into a dustpan.

  


  


\--------

  


  


No sooner than later you finally hear the distant toll of the lunch bell from the grand hall.

You and Ash both made significant progress in the abandoned hallway. It's far from being done. But hey, at least it's progress.

Ash decides to go back to the dorm to change her top and freshen up a little, while you go straight to the grand hall, after depositing the cleaning cart to the storage and take one of the restrooms nearby to clean up.

The grand hall was a vast room with long dark wooden tables and chairs. All neatly aligned in rows facing towards the front where the proctors and the staff take their seat.

Tall dark oak beams support the high ceiling, littered with metal chandeliers. While the sun shines bright outside and into the stained-glass windows that covered the walls from left and right, making the whole place bright and lively.

The girls bustle around from the hallway trickling inside the grand hall to get to their designated seats. You do the same, saying your "Hi"s and "Hello"s to the people you pass by and finally plopping down to yours and Ash's seat, you breathe a sigh of relief. It was a tiring morning for sure so you can't wait for some well deserve lunch.

Chubby pale arms gently encompass your neck, and a curtain of golden curls bobs into your vision. You don't need to turn to guess who this is.

"Hey Lottie," you smile gently and touch her arm.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that just because of me." She sniffles behind your head. You pat her arm reassuringly "What have we talked about?" You say with a light lilt in your voice trying to reassure her "I don't mind it at all. Besides I love cleaning." You tell her earnestly. "So please, don't feel guilty."

"B-but...still...I-I'm really sorry," she says again, you turn to look at her, her blue eyes glassy, nose red, and trembling pink lips. She was really upset, and that broke your heart.

"There, there Lottie, come here," she slides in the seat next to you and you hug her close.

"You don't need to be sorry about anything, family does that to one another."

  
You heard that the work load must've been too much for her. Too much that she had fallen asleep right after and skipped lunch.

Skipping lunch, particularly wasting food, is one of the great offenses stated in the institute. The punishment would automatically deny you on your next meal. The staff said it teaches everyone to value on what they currently have. Since everything had to be accounted for, with the limited supplies and donations that we receive from the government and contributing companies, every little thing counts. That also includes the dinner roll that you were supposed to get for her.

Until you were caught by Meredith.

If skipping a meal is a great offense, stealing is at the top. Thus, ending up with the chore you had to do early on today.

  


She buries her face on your chest, seeking for comfort and apologizing profusely. You kept on patting her head while reassuring her that it was okay.

  


Suddenly someone shouts your name from across the hall.

  


You turn to look and saw Tessa, walking briskly towards your direction.

Both you and Lottie were startled when she suddenly hugs you.

"Congrats!" She said.

"I'm sorry...?" You ask, turning your head to the side. Her big fluffy red hair was all over your face.

"Oh, don't be so modest, I just heard the news from Ditty," she giggles,

Meredith? What did she say this time?

"I don't exactly follow...what news?" You ask while pushing her gently by her shoulders. Not another chore you hope.

She releases her hold on you and stares at you for a minute, as if you're joking.

"Oh, so you really don't know...haha...ha..." she chuckles awkwardly as she stares off to the side.

You stare at her, making a gesture with your hand for her to continue.

"Oh right...the news!" She grabs the nearest utensils and drums them at the edge of the wooden table.

  


Well then.

  


Drum drum drum drum drum drum drum drum  
Drum drum drum drum drum drum drum drum

  


"You're getting ADOPTED!!!" She screams, loud enough for a proctor to shush her, while pointing the utensils in front of your face.

  


Wait.

  


What?!

  


That can't be right.

  


"Oh, but it is!" Squealing at your response. You didn't even notice you just said that out loud.

  


Lottie was looking at you, awestruck. So does every other girl around your proximity who heard the news.

  


This can't be right....

  


"That's impossible. I'm turning 18 next week." You say, carefully looking down.

  


When did you start to shake?

  


"They must've reconsidered it, and technically you're being adopted before turning 18. So, you're still up for the picking." Tessa beams.

  


The dinner bell rings.

  


Everyone settles down and takes their seats. Tessa and Lottie wave their goodbyes and went to their perspective tables. Lottie's mood took an incredible turn when she heard the news, completely happy for you.

  


Everyone was still staring at you, murmuring at the sudden news they heard. While you stare hard at your plate.

  


Maybe, Tessa got it wrong. 

  


Maybe it was supposed to be another girl with the same name as yours...

  


  


No, it's just you.

  


  


You gasp at this realization, having completely forgotten. 

  


The institute, the one you called home.

  


  


It was still an orphanage. 

  


  


It was still Abbott’s Institution for Orphaned Girls.

  


  


The concept of being adopted, was completely erased the moment you turned 16.

  


  


They usually want kids that are 12 to 14 years old, or even younger like Lottie. Who would even want to adopt an almost adult orphan?

  


You hear in the distance one of the nuns leads the prayer before meal. You just kept staring at your empty plate.

  


How were you even selected?

  


You know that the selection was decided when the adopting party answers a series of questions that matches the chosen child's criteria/personality. As well as choosing the child's profile.

  


But still, why?

  


Why you?

  


Why now?

  


Your vision blurs and suddenly you felt warm tears sliding down your cheek.

The girls might have thought otherwise of your reaction. They were smiling and cooing at you as if it's a good thing. Finally, being adopted.

It would have been a dream come true, if you were still 12. Abandoned by your Aunt when she has spent up on your poor parents’ resources. You were tattered and bruised from the slums when you were first bought here, desperately looking for someone to adopt you.

  


Someone to love you.

  


But...not anymore.

  


You've already found your own family.

  


A sister.

  


You have Aislinn.

  


You gasp, realization finally dawning on your predicament.

  


You must tell her. You need to break it to her yourself.

  


How would Ash take it? She would be heartbroken of course. You clutch your chest, just thinking about it hurts your heart.

  


You and Ash already had plans. Either you both work in the institute or at the nearby city.

  


This wasn't part of it.

  


You sigh and take a deep breath and wipe the tears from your eyes. You must tell her once she comes in the hallway and settles down to her seat next to you.

  


It's sudden sure, but it would've been better to hear it from you first than anyone else.

  


You look at the door of the dining room and waited with bathed breath.

  


You wait,

  


and wait.

  


Until the food arrives. Served by the girls who were on kitchen duty for this week.

  


You wait,

  


The potatoes are a bit overcooked, but you managed to eat everything.

  


and wait,

  


Your meals are done, and the plates had been cleared off.

  


You wait,

  


and wait.

  


The bell rings, signifying that lunch was done. Everyone cleared out for their afternoon classes or chores.

  


You stood there until everyone leaves the hall.

  


You stood there and waited.

  


But she never came.


	2. Crucible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Thank you all for patiently waiting! Been a busy with work and convention merch here and there but I've finally able to create chapter two! Hope you guys like it! 
> 
> Feedback is highly appreciated (人*´∀｀)｡*ﾟ+ Don't have a beta reader or any of the sorts, so I'm sorry in advance for the typos and such!

Sadden when it was apparent that Ash wouldn't come, which was odd. You headed towards your next chore for the day, only to be late by a few minutes.

Since you've already graduated and finished your classes this year, there was nothing left to do but to complete and finish chores all afternoon, and that's by helping the staff around the institute.

You also asked the people around you in between your chores if they've seen Ash anywhere.

No such luck.  
  


Dusk came and you were assigned in the kitchen to brew the stew for dinner. The kitchen was lively as always. The cook was gossiping with the staffs while peeling carrots.

You try to tune them out as much as possible, you were never a fan of people gossiping to one another.

Which is a bit hard since their booming voices can be heard in the whole kitchen.

Suddenly you hear Aislinn's name being mentioned. Your ears perks up at this and you turn to them. One of them spotted you trying to listen, and tried to shush the others in the process.

"'Aye girly, who tolja' te stop on what yer doin? Get back te work!" The cook's stern booming voice echoes through the kitchen.

Startled by the sudden command you blush and nod to return to watching the stew.

The day went by and dinner was served and finished. But still no Aislinn.

You came back to yours and Ash's room after brushing your teeth and washing your face to prep for bed.

You hang your jacket behind the door and change into your white dress camisole.

Creak

The creaky frame of the wooden bed was getting louder, as you lay carefully down and curl to your side facing the door.

You let out a long sigh, you might need to add more support in the bedframe. The whole thing might cave in since it was so old.

A thought came, and you were struck with a realization.

_"Is it still necessary? You'll be leaving soon."_

You bury your face into your pillow and grumble, it was definetly a tiring day full of emotions.

You stared at the stain on the upper left corner of the ceiling while trying to contain your thoughts.

The thought of being adopted is still not sinking in. Other than that, Tessa was your only source in this, none of the staff or nuns have approached you just yet.

_"Maybe they're still preparing for it."_ You thought _._

You really hoped that it was just a mistake. But news like that were always true based on the previous years you've been here.

Sighing you try to look around your room, trying to recall every little detail of memory you have etched in this living quarters.

The bunker bed which was too big for you before, now too small that you have to curl your whole body to properly fit yourself in.

The tic-tac-toes you and Ash scribbled on the brown wooden walls, are now faded over the years. Hidden behind the wooden study desks.

Looking at the desks in front of you, it was apparent who's who. Ash's desk was a mess. Papers and schedules of the weekly chores lay about or shoved in between books and drawers. But she preferred it like that.

One time you tried to tidy it up for her, but it further confused her, she prefers finding her stuff in disarray than in an organized environment.

Your desk on the other hand was organized and tidy. You like to know where everything is placed and hidden.

A pink notebook was wedged in between the wall and your desk, serves as your hiding spot for your diary. A framed drawing just above your desk of you and Ash, which she made herself, on your first day as roomates. A small rose succulent plant just below the lamp, a gift from the girls on your 15th birthday. 

And finally your corkboard full of notes and letters, from every single friend, or you can almost say family, of everyone that already left the institute.

Adopted.

You never did manage to hear back from them whenever you send your letters out.

Which are passed down to the nuns in the institute.

They were really gentle at telling you that they might have moved on with their lives outside of the institute, that they don't have time to write back anymore.

Would you be like that? Once you've left the institute?

No.

No matter what the circumstances or how busy you'll become you promise to yourself that you will take your time to write back to those who took their time to reach out to you.

But, what if the people here forgot about you...can you still reach out to them once you've left here? Would they still want to talk to you after?

You take a long sigh.

All of these negative thoughts aren't going to get you anywhere.

Regardless of the outcome, you'll still reach out. Whether or not they would want to reply, is up to them.

How about Ash though? Will she find a way to meet you outside of the institute?

How will the both of you find time for each other? Were you even allowed to meet her?

Will your adoptive parents agree to it?

Speaking about your soon to be parents, how will they be like...

Will they be kind?patient?understanding?

Or will they be like your aunt.

The institute must've screened them properly, right?

To see If they're fit to take care of a child...in this case, a teenager...uhh...an almost adult?

Your mind was swimming with all these convoluted thoughts that you decided to just end the day and sleep this off.

Telling Ash about the big news will have to wait in the morning.

You close your eyes and let sleep take over you.

Blackness.

You're aware that you're already asleep, but yet there were no dreams.

You were just floating in a vast black void of nothingness.

You look around, getting frantic. Fear ebbing its way towards you.

The darkness, as if it has a mind of its own, was slowly choking you.

A sudden warm green light eminates around you. Covering your whole being.  
  


You know for a fact that this light is somehow protecting you.  
  


You try to look for the source, and you finally notice that it's coming from your chest.  
  


Something else was glowing, you try to look down and see a holographic sign, which you can't quite decipher the words indicated.

You try to grab it but the moment you do you were jolted awake by sweaty hands on your shoulders.

Shaking you frantically.

"Wake up! Wake up!" Ash's quiet urgent voice echoes in your room.

"Ash? Wha-- where were you?" You ask, still dazed from your sleep. You squint your eyes and try to look towards her...

Wait...

"What happened to you?!" You ask, startled. Ash silences you by immediately cupping her hands onto your mouth.

Ash had bruises and scratch marks on her face and a swollen right eye. Not to mention the cuts on her knuckles.

"There's no time, we need to go." Ash hisses quietly. She goes to your corner of the room and opens your drawers. She begins stuffing your clothes messily in one of her duffel bags.

"Go? Go where?" You ask her as quietly as possible while sitting up. You look at the clock, it was 3 in the morning, not to mention it was raining hard outside.

"Ash, can this wait in the morning? Also, I need to treat your wounds they might get infecte--"

"They're taking you away!" She says, loud enough to hear her voice from the raging storm outside.

She knows?

"You know? You know I'm getting adopted? W-who told yo--"

"Adopted?" She says incredulousy. "They're not adopting you. No one's adopting anyone." She says this in a manic, laughing tone. As if hearing a joke for the first time.

"What? What are you saying?"

"Listen, I'd love to tell you everything, but right now is not the best time." She says urgently and swings the bag around her frame.

"Please just trust me on this one." She silently pleads, looking at you.

You slowly smile at her

"You know I always trust you." You put on your shoes and grab your jacket from the coat rack.

Ash smiles back gently at that. "Alright then, let's go. Also, be really quiet, the hall monitors are up and about."

You nod and stand besides her.

"Ah, but first..." You say and stop to grab her left hand, turning her around towards you. You cup your other hand on her cheek and exhale slowly. You let that warmth travel from your chest towards her.

The warm green glow radiating from your palm was slowly restoring her face, the cuts and bruises were slowly fading. Her swollen eye was thinning out, leaving her beautiful blue gray round eyes bright and clear.

"There we go, good as new." You pat her face gently. Ash blushes at the gesture.

You were just about to remove your hand when she places hers on top of it and turn her face to kiss your palm.

"Thanks," She smiles and whispers into your hand while looking straight at you.

You giggle and reply "Anytime," it was so rare to see Ash flusterred.

Ash looks at you as if she would say something more. But she just sighs, and lets go.

"Come on. It's almost dawn. We need to get out of here by then." She says, turning the knob slowly and peeking out in the hallway.

When she notice that the coast was clear, she steps out and motions for you to follow her.

Carefully you shut the door behind you and follow Ash closely, trying to mimic her steps.

The hallway was devoid from any light, save for a few lamps.

It was quiet. The only noise you can hear was the raging wind and the pitter patter of the rain outside.

You passed by the long hallway near the grand hall. The stone walls were lit up by a few scattered lamps here and there. It was eerily creepy unlike in the morning. You never did get to explore the institute at night, they were really strict at letting everyone go to bed once 9:00 P.M. hits.

As you were about to turn the next corner, Ash stops and hide. Pressing herself onto the wall. She turns and gestures for you to be quiet.

She points at the end of the hall.

You peek at the corner and saw 2 hall monitors and 1 nun walking in the hallway near the windows holding their flashlights. They were quietly whispering to one another.

You pale and turn to look at Ash.

She nods, confirming your thoughts.

They were headed your way.

The both of you begin to head back to the same path you came from. When turn back you hear a small sniff and a groan.

A girl was limping and looking down at the floorboards. She was trying to get inside one of the rooms, and was clearly having difficulty doing so.

You thank your lucky stars she didn't see the both of you. As you were about to sneak pass her, you notice that the girl lost her balance when she tried to lean into the doorframe.

Without really thinking much about it...  
  
  


You run towards her and catch her.

Ash was completely blind sided with your action that when she reached out to stop you it was already too late.

You caught the girl in your arms as carefully as you could, but the girl still yelps in pain from the contact.

You look at her closely using the lamp hanging near her door.

It was...

"Meridith?..." You gasp, holding her gently into your arms.

Her whole face was so swollen and bruised. It was black and purple all over. Scratch marks were peppered around her face and her arms. She was clenching her ribs and writhing in pain, then she finally looks up to see who caught her.

She tries to say your name---

"Listen we have to go!" Ash interupts immediately, pulling your shoulder away from Meridith.

She turns to look at Ash and Meridith's face begins to pale. She begins to shake and tries to pull away from you frantically.

Ash pulls your arm forcefully this time to run while grabbing tightly on your wrist. Letting Meridith falls from your grasp and land on the wooden floor with a loud thump.

She groans and sobs while clutching her side.

"Ash we need to help her," You say, while trying to pull her back to Meridith.

Ash's firm grip remains on your hand as she holds you tightly like an iron vice. You couldn't pull away as much as you want to. She was far too stronger than you.

"I told you there's no time. We're trying to escape." She hisses, apparantly annoyed at thought of helping Meridith.

"But Ash---" you try to reason.

"She deserves it." She spat out coldly.

Your eyes widen at that notion. Ash was a lot of things, wild, mischievous, but she was never merciless.

"Ash what do you mean---"

"I told you that I'll tell you everything that you needed to know once we're out of here." She says this with gritted teeth, dragging you through the hallway and into the grand hall.

She stops and pushes you into a corner, just besides the old wooden Grandfather clock.

Tick tock tick tock

No sooner than later a pair of hall monitors appear in the direction from which the both of you came from.

You stifle a gasp as Ash blocks your view, facing in your direction. She pushes your back against the wall and held up both of her hands leaning towards the wall for support. Towering you and completely covering your view.

"...she might be a proper potential. All of those youngins were just too fragile." One of the hall monitor speaks out,

"I know. The poor dears were just not susceptible in receiving that much that they simply wasted away." A boisterous female voice replies. "And to such gruesome states as well," she tsks. "Only a few managed to actually persist."

"Do you suppose that youngin'...what's her name again...Ah, mary?....Meridith, was it?...was right from what she saw?"

"Dunno, only one way to find out..." She hums, "Besides, we still have a lot of resources at hand." The boisterous voice chuckles.

"Yes, we do, but Mother Superior is getting impatient. She needs to have results by the end of the month from all of this, and time's running out. We need to retaliate soon," The other one murmurs impatiently. "Also, having a fully matured potential is quite rare, how do you suppose it will manage?"

"We can always disect it piece by piece," She snickers at this.

You were so confused as to what they were talking about that you try to look up to Ash to see if she has a say in all of this. You were shocked when you saw her face.

She was seething, looking straight at the stone wall on your back as if she's trying to melt it with her gaze alone.

You hear a thwack. The other one probably hit her on her shoulder.

"Jeez, you're just as Barbaric as Mother Superior."

She snickers, "Well, you were thinking it as wel--"

"You two!!" A commanding voice rang, coming from the other end of the hallway.

"Ma'am!" Both of them said in unison.

"We have escapees on the loose, one of the girls who saw them was badly injured. The girl got her jaw broken." She huffs in annoyance at this.

Were they talking about Meridith? 

"I want a clear search on the whole parameter, the west wing and east wing included. Keep a watch on all exits and windows, they couldn't be that far ahead." She states,

"Also, what ever you do, Don't. Hurt. Them. We need them alive." She says the final words clear and concise.

"Yes Ma'am." They respond, and you hear footsteps slowly fading away into the distance.

Alive? What were they planning to do? Fear was settling in and panic starts to brew inside of you.

What in the world is going on? What is all of this? What were they talking about?

You were starting to shake, and Ash gently coaxes you. She leans onto the top of your head and tries to soothe you.

"Shhh...shhh...it's okay, I'm here. I got you. We're getting out of this." she silently whispers onto your head.

You hold on to her, and try your best to retain your composure.

As much as you want to know what's happening, It'll just have to wait.

Ash peeks at the corner and scans the room.

"I think they're gone," She concludes, grabbing your hand and breaking into a run down the hallway while holding onto her duffel bag tightly around her.

"We need to go to the laundry room, using one of the linen chutes around here...Ah, here."

She stops near the door of the grandhall and opens the chute to usher you inside.

The linen chute is much more bigger here due to all of the long table cloths that comes from the dining room.

You've always wanted to try sliding down into one of these things when you were a kid.

You didn't imagine recreating that childhood dream under these circumstances.

Grabbing the top edge, you prop yourself into a sitting position and twist your upper body around, shooting your legs into the chute.

Ash smiles and pats your head fondly

"I'll meet you in just a sec--"

"Ah, so it was the two of you that were trying to escape."

You and Ash both turn to the source of the voice.

The voice that you heard just a few minutes ago, ordering the two hall monitors.

"Sister Marge...?"

Ash voices out your confusion. She was one of the kindest and most soft spoken among the nuns.

Although her voice and stature is totally different right now.

"Come now, let's stop this childish nonsense and have the both of you go to bed. Everyone will be worried sick if you girls continue this on." She reaches out her hand to the both of you, smiling patiently.

"I'm sorry Sister, as much as you want us to, I'm afraid we can't do that." Ash smiles coily at this and suddenly pushes you down the chute.

"AAAAAAAaaaaaa!!"

You can't help but scream at the suddeness of the drop. You land on a soft pile of linen at the end followed by a duffel bag just behind your back. You shuffle to stand up quickly and get out of the basket of linens grabbing the duffel bag to make way for Ash.

Ash follows suit not to long. She jumps out immediately from the basket and grabs the duffel bag from you, securing it around her shoulder.

"You good?" She asks. You nod once, and the both of you were off.

The adrenaline finally kicking in. You have no idea on why you need to escape without any clear visual grasp on the reason, you just have that gut clenching feeling that became prominent when you heard the conversation of the hall monitors and Sister Marge just a while ago.

You speed along the laundry room. You know where you're headed. The both of you have scourge every nook and crany of this entire establishment your whole lives.

Finally reaching the door at the end leading outside, where you hang up the laundry to dry.

You twist the knob and push the door.

But it just wouldn't budge.

"Ash it won't budge! I think it's locked from the outside." You turn looking at her for help.

"That's impossible! I made sure this door was unlocked before I came to get you." She grunts, pushing her whole weight against the door.

"My dears, It is futile to get out of here. You know the rules." You hear Sister Marge's death calm voice at the other end of the small cramped hall.

"What--"

"How did you--"

"Like I said," She tsks,

"Let's get the both of you to bed. The sun's almost up, you both need a good nights sleep for your chores tomorrow," She say in a falsely sweet chipper voice, that seems a bit forced.

You take a step back, standing besides Ash with your back at the door.

"How did you get here so fast?" You voice out your concern.

"Why, I followed you of course," She chuckles, as if it was so obvious.

"No, that's impossible, we would've heard you--" You continue to push at her.

"That's not important, what's important though is your big day tomorrow." She smiles widely at this.

"My big day?" You ask, confused.

"Your adoption my dear. I'm sure you must've heard of it. Almost everyone has been talking about it all day." She inches closer.

"So it's true..." You whisper aloud. Your eyes widen at this.

Ash calls out to you, "I told you a while ago it's not--"

"Of course it's true, you've waited so long for this my dear. Everyone's been so happy for you." She takes another step, nearing the rack of soaps and detergents.

"I did, but--"

"But she's coming with me," Ash steps in front of you, blocking you from Sister Marge,

"Aislinn, please don't be difficult, you shouldn't be jealous of not being chosen. Your time will come eventually," Sister Marge says in a calm and pitiful voice.

"Oh it will come alright," Ash says grinning.

She suddenly pulls the rack to the side, tipping down all of it's contents onto Sister Marge.

You were startle at this sudden action and step aside to avoid the disaster.

Sister Marge wasn't fast enough to avoid everything, including the rack, that toppled over her completely.

She was knocked out unconcious and lay limply amongst the debris of powder detergents and liquid soaps.

"Ash!" You gasp, still can't believe on what she just did.

You try to reach out to Sister Marge to help her but Ash suddenly grabs your hand and sprints off, hopping over the wreckage.

You follow suit, still to stunned at what happened.

"Ash, what did you do? That was Sister Marge you just knocked unconcious," you say disbelieving.

"It was either that or being bought back to the room. I told you we need to escape. It's not safe here." She says this as she runs up the stairs, two steps at a time.

You try to keep up, but you were getting tired. 

"There they are!!" One of the hall monitors spotted you and were running towards you.

"Shit," Ash curses aloud and swirves to the left. Heading to the dormitories.

"I got them, they're here." Another hall monitor spotted you both and Ash quickly maneuvers to the right, heading down the hall.

"Fuck, they're everywhere." Ash gritts her teeth. 

Normally you would've chided her at her language, but due to the events unfolding and the impending doom of not finding a way out, you have to agree with her.

  
You were both fucked. 

  
The hall monitor from earlier is now tailing you. Fast.

  
Running near the tall glass windows and seeing the harrowing thunder and rain outside was not helping to calm down your nerves.

As you near the end of the hallway, you spotted another hall monitor. Running towards you.

Both you and Ash came to a halt and started to look around the premise.

There was nothing but doors leading to the girls rooms on your left and the high tall windows to your right.

Ash looked at a nearby window and spotted a tree branch which was quite reachable.

You spot it as well and before you could ask her. She smashed the glass window using her full weight leaning onto the duffel bag.

She cleared out the glass shards around the window using the same thing as well.

And before you can even react she grabs your hand and hauls you outside the gaping window towards the tree branch.

You instantly grab for it. 

The harsh wind and rain making it difficult to maneuver to climb down. But you manage to make it quick as possible.

When you've finally reached down, completely soaking wet from the rain. You look at the window and wait for Ash.

Your eyes widen at the sight. As Ash wrestles the hall monitors, including Sister Marge, trying to break free from their grasp.

What?! How was she able to get there?

No.

No no no no.

"ASH!!" You screech.

Ash was saying something but you couldn't hear what it was due to the loud raging rain.

She seems annoyed at this, instead she gestures with her hand.

She's gesturing that you should go. 

That you should run and leave her. All the while struggling against the grip of the hall monitors trying their best to pull her away from the window.

  
"I won't leave you!!" You screamed back. 

You try to climb up the tree to get back to her. But when you look back at the window you see something hurdling towards your direction.

  
It was the duffel bag. 

  
It hit you so hard on the head, that it knocked you over at the end of the ledge sending you down into the forest below.

As you tumble and slide at the edge of the cliff, getting cuts and bruises here and there, getting covered by mud and leaves, you try to stop your descent by grabbing one of the uprooted tree roots.

You try to look up from where you came from and was shocked from the height from which you fell.

Carefully you let go and stand up with your wobbly legs, begging for rest. But you must move forward. You need to look for help. If what Ash said was right, and it wasn't safe there anymore you need to call for someone or anyone for that matter. In order to save Ash. 

No, not just Ash, but the other girls as well.

The discussion on what the hall monitors were talking about truly baffled you. Furthermore, Sister Marge's appearance and stature was totally different. Not to mention the way that she seems to appear just about anywhere, was truly a mystery. But you must escape the premise first, it wouldn't be long before they catch up.

The continuous torrential downpour was hindering your vision. Navigating through the thick foliage was getting more difficult with each step. The noise from the rain along with the raging river besides your path was enough to hide yourself.

Or so you thought...

"I found her!!"

You try to turn to the opposite direction of the voice, but the dirt underneath you gives way. Sending you down, towards the river below.

The last thing that you hear was someone shouting your name in the distance, until the cold water envelopes you whole.

You kick and push your arms against the harsh waters, trying your best to remain afloat, but the current is just too strong. The only good thing about this is, it's carrying you far away from your captors.

You keep on thrashing upwards while Inhaling unwanted water as you try to bob your head above. But it's all too much. You're getting tired. Black spots starts to appear in your vision and your chest feels heavy. Your lungs stings, as if you're trying to inhale needles instead of air.

Amidst the pain and darkness you hear a voice, getting closer.

"BROTHER! I THINK I FOUND A HUMAN!"

  
  


The weather was getting worse, and sans was getting fidgty. He was getting soaking wet, the raincoat did little to nothing to protect him from this awful weather.

They wouldn't be out here in the first place if it wasn't for Pap's vegetable garden. It was getting destroyed due to the strong wind and rain. They had to put a tarp over it to protect the whole goddamn thing. 

And they had to do this early in the morning too. sans groans at this.

Not only that, but they need to pull out the fishing net from the river so it wouldn't be torn to shreds. They decided to split the workload to save time.

So Paps was doing that one, while he's stuck doing the tarp thing.

As sans was about to finish he heard Papyrus screaming in the nearby river.

"BROTHER! I WAS RIGHT! IT IS A HUMAN!!" Papyrus was running back with his yellow raincoat covered in mud flapping about in the wind.

And indeed, he was carrying a mud covered human. Shivering from the cold and coughing about.

"where'd you found her bro?" He asks, trying to inspect the human properly, wiping the mud from her face.

hmm...looks harmless enough. Sans observes the unconcious girl which was still shivering on Papyrus' arms. 

"I SAW HER FLOATING IN THE RIVER AND GOT CAUGHT IN THE FISH NET. I JUST SIMPLY PULL HER OVER THE ROCKY SHORE AND PERFORMED CEEPER! " Paps puffs his chest. 

"cpr?" sans asks, raising a brown bone.

"EXACTLY! I STARTED COMPRESSING HER CHEST, NOT TOO HARD THOUGH, BUT UNTIL SHE STARTED COUGHING UP WATER." He sounds so proud at this. Which actually impressed sans. He didn't know his brother actually knows how to perform CPR. 

"that was really cool of you bro, good job." He pats Papyrus on the back.

"BUT OF COURSE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS KNOWS NO BOUNDS, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO SAVING OTHERS!" He states this triumphantly.

"hehe...i know, you're the best bro." sans genuinely smiles at this, as he secures the tarp in place. He stands up and stretches. Popping a bone here and there. 

"come on, let's head on back to the others for now and let the human rest." sans says as he leads the way back to the cabin.

Papyrus follows suit carrying you safely in his arms.

He stops when he notices that you wouldn't stop shivering.He took off his raincoat and wrapped it gently around you, hugging you tightly after. Even pushing a little bit of his magic.

Doing his best to keep you warm.

Luckily your shivering subsided and you started to relax. He smiles at this.

"There, There, Don't Worry Human, You're Safe Now." you hear the voice say, 

Your eyelids feels so heavy and you were oh so tired, but you believed that comforting voice.

You believe that you are safe. 

Saving the others will just have to wait, for now.

In these warm and scrawny arms you fall asleep.


	3. Incalescence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Happy valentine's day! Hope everyone's good and healthy! Keep safe everyone! Also, hope you guys like this chapter :'D

Floating

You dream of nothing. You're back in the black void again. Back from where you were last awaken by Ash before the night both of you tried to escape.

It feels like it's been forever since that happened.

You're still covered in that warm green glow. The rectangular signs with the weird letters floating just below your peripherals were gone though.

Instead, it was replaced with a half full green bar that is slowly being filled. Little by little.

You try to grab it, but it was always out of reach. So you just gave up and let it be.

Still floating in this big black empty space.  
  


But...  
  


But you need to wake up soon. You need to go back to the others.

To Ash.

You need to save them.  
  


Slowly you try to will yourself to wake up. It's as if being in bed the whole day and you're willing yourself to get up and stop being lazy.  
  
  


Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.  
  
  
  
  


You wake up.  
  
  


Your eyes slowly flutter open and you saw someone's red gloved hand, carefully dabbing your forehead with a damp cloth.

You groan from the light coming from the window above you. You try to adjust your eyesight from the sudden brightness.

"Oh! Are You Awake?"

An energetic voice booms to your right.

You squint and try to look at his direction.

"W-where am I?" Your voice was hoarse, as if it hasn't been used for days.

How long were you even asleep?

"Oh! You're Finally Awake I see! Well, You're In Our Newly Renovated Guest Room!" The energetic male voice answers,

Your eyesight slowly becomes clearer, and you notice that he's super skinny and deathly pale.

No, wait...

He's stark white...has hallow eyes...

"Human?...Are You Alright?"

It's a talking Skeleton.

You recoil, as you push your whole body to the farthest opposite side of the bed. Making you fall into the wedge between the wall and the bed.

Oh God, that made you dizzy...

And now you're stuck.

"HUMAN! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" The skeleton tries to reach it's gloved hand towards you.  
  


You screech like a banshee.  
  


The Skeleton screams as well,

The door suddenly slams open,

"what happened?! what's going on in here?" A baritone voice calls out.

"BROTHER, I THINK I BROKE THE HUMAN!" Skeleton man says worriedly.

You try to peek from your position, but you're still stuck. Instead you flail your arms uselessly trying to dislodge yourself.

"pfft...hehehe why is she stuck like that?" the baritone voice just laughs at your position.

Rude.

"I--I THINK I SURPRISED HER!"

"Some help would be nice, please?" You speak up.

"ok ok, i gotcha'," A strong warm sturdy hand pulls you up from wedge towards the top of the bed.

"Thanks, I actually got surprised from the skeleton back there--" you try to say, but was cut short when you notice the fused skeletal hands that was holding yours.

You look up.

Hallow eye sockets with white soft pins of light meets your vision, "make that two," he winks.

How in the world does his bones do that?  
  


You scramble to get away from him, and almost fall again, but his arms wounds up around your waist easily catching you.

"i wasn't expecting you to fall for me that quick," he winks, again.

You stupidly blush at that.

"BROTHER STOP YOUR SHENANIGANS, CAN'T YOU SEE THAT SHE'S CLEARLY DISTRAUGHT? " Skeleton#1 sighs, clearly annoyed.

You wince at his loud booming voice, the sudden movement from earlier left you with a headache.

"ok ok, i'll let it go," Skeleton #2 says this as he lets you go, letting you bounce back to bed.

"I-I...what are you?? Who are you??" Question upon question gushes out from your mouth as you lean away from them, still very confused.

"Oh! Why We're Monsters My Dear, Skeleton Monsters To Be Precise!" Skeleton#1 smiles, "I'm Sure You've Heard Of Our Kind! We've Been In The Surface For Quite Some Time Now! 5 Years And 4 Months To Be Exact!"

Monsters?? What??

Wait a minute...

FIVE YEARS?!

No way

"Yes Way!" Skeleton#1 gushes out proudly,

Did you just say that out loud?

"And To Answer Your Second Question," He held a heroic pose, hands on his hips and chest puffed out in his overgrown brown sweater, his red scarf fluterring behind him, without any gush of wind....How was that even possible.

"I Am The Great Papyrus! And This Right Next To Me Is My Brother Sans!" He points to sans.

"sup' nice to meetcha'," sans replies lazily hands inside his pockets.

You greet them in response and mention your name.

You're still reeling in the idea of monsters being integrated into society. And to think they've been here for 5 years...

How come no one talked about it in the institute? This is very big news. They should've at least mentioned about it, so that the girls once adopted, would have been ready for it.

Also, this kind of thing is what you usually hear from stories...myths...

Monsters aren't supposed to be real.

...

So does your powers though, so you guess anything's possible at this point.

"Is Something The Matter Human? Does Your Head Hurt? Do You Want Some Water?" Papyrus slowly approaches you.

You blink up towards him. Your fight or flight insticts weren't kicking in. Besides the initial reaction, which basically just surprised you. So your gut feeling must've felt that they're good people...err...monsters.

Besides you wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for them.

"No, it's fine. I'm fine." You smile politely "Listen, I'm...sorry for my behavior a while ago, It's just that...I'm not...used to seeing your kind. In fact, this is the first time I've ever encountered a monster, let alone hear about it." You look at the floor guiltly.

"My Goodness, Really?" Papyrus says increduously, "If I Ever Come To Straightforward, I Have To Apologize,"

"No! No, you're good!" You look up and wave your hands frantically, "I was just surprised,"

"Are You Sure? If--"

"that's enough for now bro, i think the human's a bit famished, howsabout you go get her some grub and i'll keep her company right here." sans says interferring while dragging the stool near your bed.

"Oh! How Could I Forget! You Must've Been Starving For Sleeping That Long. Good Thinking Brother! I Will Fix Her A Feast Fit For A Queen!" He jumps from his place and landed perfectly near the door.

"See You Later Human!" He waves goodbye, and gently closes the door.

"you sure you're okay? i know my bro's a bit overwhelming, but he means well." sans asks leaning forward from his stool.

"Yes, I am." You nod, "Your brother's actually really sweet, I appreciate his efforts." You smile at this, "Again, I'm really sorry for my actions a while ago. I'm just reeling in all of this." You stated and bring your knees to your chest.

"ah, you mean about the monsters thing?"

You look at him guiltily, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, this new bit of information is just a bit overwhelming."

"heh, you gotta stop apologizing. we get it. even the people who knew about this years ago are still adjusting to our kind. so just take your time and take it easy." He shrugs,

"Thank you. Not just for that, but for being so hospitable in taking care of me while im out of it," You say greatfully,

"no prob, it was all paps doin' anyways," he shrugs nonchantly again, "now, if you don't mind, i'd actually like to know what happened to you the night when we found you." sans asks propping his foot at the bed's side frame. You notice that he's wearing pink fluffy bunny slippers.

Oh, how cute...

You look at him and said in a quiet voice "I was...I was escaping," Scrunching up your eyebrows at the thought.

"escaping from where exactly?" he raises one of his brow bones.

Well, here goes...

"From an orphanage, Abott's Institution for Orphaned Girls." You explained,

He pauses at this and scratches his fingers below his chin.

"huh...sorry, never heard of the place. were you a staff there?" sans voices out,

"Ah, no. I'm actually one of the girls that reside in that place..." You response while picking on a loose thread at the edge of the blanket.

sans scrutinizes you from head to toe.

Was there something wrong with your appearance?

You look down, peeking inside your blanket to see you were wearing a large long white shirt, that would've been mistaken for a dress. Your bra's missing and you're wearing black boxers instead of your underwear.

Wait a minute, who changed your clothes...

Well, you really don't mind given the circumstances on when they found you.

It's just that it's really embarassing.

Did sans did it? Is that why he's staring at you like that?

...

You try not to dwell into it and just look at your lap, trying your best not to blush.

He finally settles a long hard look on your face.

"so you're one of the orphans...how old are you?" Quirking an eyebrow...browbone?

"Oh, I'm actually 17. Turning 18 this month." You smile.

Hmmm...come to think of it what day is it today?

"huh...i see," he says while keeping his neutral passive expression, "also, i just have to ask," he leans a bit closer, "was the orphanage not nice to you? is that why you ran away? did they treated you badly?" sans takes on a serious tone,

"No, they were actually really nice. The staff were strict but reasonable, and they wouldn't do anything to physically hurt anyone. Not that I know of," You look up at sans,

"why escape then?"

"My best fr-- I mean, sister, she learned a few things not many of us knew that was happening inside the institute. Something bad. She was persistent to get out of there, saying it wasn't safe."

"what things? what did she found out?" he asks curiously leaning towards you a bit.

"I'm not actually sure myself, she was suppose to explain the whole thing when the both of us escape."

You decided to keep the tid bit of information you heard from the hall monitors back then, even you don't know what they we're talking about.

You take a deep breathe and try to recall the night you both escaped. Your face filled with regret while you try to hold back unshed tears.

"Unfortunately, my sister didn't make it. She was caught," you quietly say,

Your chest feels heavy just by remembering it.

"When we got surrounded, she pushed me out of the window, into a tree branch. I climbed down and waited for her, but when I look up they were already pulling her back." Your eyebrows scrunch up,

"She must've knew that I was planning to go back to her," you grin at this memory, "the moment I touched the base of the tree she chucks the duffle bag filled with our clothes, straight towards me, knocking me off, sending me down the slope and thus me ending up in the river." You let out a bittersweet chuckle.

You really regreted not going back to her. You wonder what sort of punishment she had to endure back in the institute.

he touches your shoulder, "she did what she had to do to get you out of there,"

He looks at you gently, his white eyelights becoming fuzzier.

"she's a great sister," sans says,

You smile at this and touch his hand in return, which was warm and smooth to feel, noticing a few bumps and grooves here and there. You decided that it was a nice texture.

"Yeah. She's the coolest." You proudly say patting his hand.

He retracts his hand quickly and look at you as if noticing his actions just now. You didn't even process the exchange of gesture, him being a monster and you being a human.

It didn't feel weird or scary, it just feels like a natural exchange between two people.

You wanted to reassure him that it's fine, but you're thinking that it might offend him more if you bought it up. So you decided to shrug it off and continue with your story.

"If it weren't for Sister Marge popping everywhere, we would've made it out together." You sigh and lay your forehead on your knees.

"popping out everywhere how?" he asks, very intrigued with this tidbit of information.

"Uhhh...It's really weird. I don't think you'll believe me if I told you..." Chuckling at the thought.

"pfft...i'm sure you must've notice that i'm a living, breathing, magical skeleton monster, at this point anything's possible." sans smirks at this showing you his skeletal hand.

Huh, wasn't that what you just thought a while ago. Great minds think a like then.

Giving a sigh of defeat you nod your head, "Okay, you do have a point."

You turn to him fully, crossing your legs.

"Promise not to laugh okay?"

"heh...i already did," he pointed to the nook where you fell just a few minutes ago and chuckles at this.

You pout and lightly whack him on the shoulder. "Well, glad I made you happy,"

He continues to chuckle, "okay, okay...gonna stop," holding both of his hands in surrender.

"Alright," you sit up straightly and begin,

"Well, you see...like I said it's really weird, when we were hiding from the hall monitors while trying to escape, we heard Sister Marge walk farther down the hall at the oppodite direction on where we're suppose to head, after talking with the hall monitors. So, Ash took the opportunity to flee at the scene. But, the moment when we were about to go down the laundry chute, she was right behind us."

"huh...you sure that you didn't just hear her approach?" sans looks skeptical at this,

"No, the laundry chute was smack right at the center of the hallway. We would've seen anyone coming. It was dark, but there were lamps scattered everywhere. So we're basically at the open at that time. So, it was really weird, when she suddenly popped out right behind us."

"...huh, interesting..." sans says this nonchantly,

"Not only that, but when we went down the chute and made a run for it, going to the other end of the institute, she was suddenly behind us _AGAIN_..It doesn't make sense. She couldn't have gone through the chute or found another route that fast. My sister tried to stop her by pulling down the soap shelves knocking Sister Marge unconcious." You timidly say,

sans seems surprised at this,

You were too, back when Ash did it, but it only proves your point. That it was nearly impossible that she was right behind you the whole time when the two of you sprinted towards the kitchen.

sans was quiet. Silently observing you as if waiting for you to tell him more.

So you did, "And when my sister was about to jump out the window, Sister Marge was right there, pulling her back...it's as if she's appeared out of thin air, I know it sounds crazy, but it did happen." You firmly stated,

"well...what do you think it was then?" sans says,

"Uhhh...I don't know to be honest," you look to the side,

You don't want to admit it, but what if Sister Marge also has the ability that you have.

Only different.

Allowing her tomove from one place to another. There's a word for it but you're not quite sure what's it called.

Also, you don't want to voice it out, but there's this lingering fear at the back of your mind that's making you think that what if these people figure it all out, it might lead them into knowing about _your_ powers.

You're still unsure on how would they react or what will they do if they did find out. So you decided to test it out by telling him this story. Sure, monsters are now accepted, or so they say, but it's still a different matter. You can never be too cautious, as Ash always say.

"tell you what, how about we go downstairs and fill ya up, think breakfast is just about ready," he winks and stands up offering out a hand, "you sure you're ready to stand up? not getting dizzy or anything?" sans says,

"Yeah, I think I'm fine, just need to walk out the tingling feeling on my legs," you reply, holding onto his hand for support. Your legs were a bit wobbly, but sans held a firm grip onto your hand making you steady.

"uhh...you might wanna cover yourself up more, family's downstairs," grabbing a similar blue hoodie with his other hand from the nearby drawer, he hands it over to you.

You blush at this,

Of course,

You say your thanks and zip up the hoodie. It was similar to the one he's wearing, it was super soft and comfy, and it smells like clean crisp linen sheets, with a slight tang of ketchup.

You resume holding onto his hand for support, still having that tingling feel on your legs, which surprised him, but you don't mind.

"hey, i know this shortcut just through that door, much faster than the one my bro took," he points to the other door just besides the door where Papyrus walked from.

"Really? But it looks like a closet," you observe, as you see small piles of socks and dirty white shirts peeking under the door.

"trust me on this one," he winks and grins, the corner of his eyesockets were crinkling with mischief. He reminds you of Ash for some reason that you can't help but chuckle and reply "Sure,"

When he opens the door, it was pitch black. As the both of you walk in, with sans leading the way, he holds you close and gripped your hand tighter.

The moment you blink, you were in a different and in a much brighter place.

A long wooden glossy table with plates and utensils lined up neatly in rows. It reminds you of the grand hall of the institute but smaller and newer, and in the middle of it all was a wide aray of food you've ever seen set up for breakfast.

Two towers of fluffy pancakes stacked high at both ends of the long table with bottles of honey and maple syrup at the side. Next to it were 2 plates of crispy piles of bacon, a steaming plate of sausages and sunny-side up eggs with a few bottles of ketchup and mustard in between the dishes, and at the center were 2 pitchers of orange juice and 2 boxes of milk side by side. You can even smell some coffee being brewed at the nearby kitchen.

This is, without a doubt, the dining room.

How in the world...did the both of you get here...

sans leads you to a nearby chair and lets you sit, with your mouth agape.

He closes it with a tip of his finger.

"How???" You look at him bewildered.

sans chuckles at your reaction, "it's called maaaagic," waggling his fingers.

No way.

Oh my gosh, no way.

No waaaay!!

"So, it's real?" You say aloud, "What Sister Marge did was..."

"yeeeep, same thing i did back there." sans grabbed a piece of bacon and took a bite out of it.

Oh, so he can open his mouth that wide.

"magic, has also become a common norm after our immersion, and quite recently as well for humans," he takes another piece of bacon, "though ya' need ta have a license to properly use them out in the public. so not everyone can use it all willy nilly," he says this waving the piece of bacon before biting onto it.

Huh, who knew he had fangs.

"So everyone can use magic?" You ask excitedly.

He grabs a ketchup bottle at the center of the table. "every emonster can. instead of blood, magic is what's keeping us monsters alive," he pours some ketchup on his empty plate and dips a bacon before taking a bite out of it.

"so yeah, magic is the most basic thing that a monster can do, like the one that i just showed you" he says, dipping another bacon.

"as for humans, not everyone has or can do magic. humans who can use magic are called mages, they're pretty rare but not uncommon, " biting on another bacon piece.

"So, are there other humans that can do what Sister Marge did?," You ask.

"sure there are, not anyone that i know of though. it depends on the human's soul trait," sans shrug nonchantly, eating another piece of bacon that has far too much ketchup.

"Soul trait? What's that?" You ask,

"it's--"

"SANS! WHAT DID I TOLD YOU ABOUT WAITING FOR EVERYONE BEFORE EATING? WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS? WE HAVE A GUEST!" Papyrus bursts out from the kitchen carrying a stack of toasts on one hand and a pitcher of coffee at the other.

"ah you're right bro," sans says as he picks up a bacon,

"bacon?" He hands it out to you,

"Uhh...sure," you reply and took it from his outstretched fingers.

"SANS! WHAT DID I JUST SAY? BE PROPER!!" Papyrus says looking scandalized.

"what? am i bacon you crazy?" sans snickers,

What...

"Pfft..." You try to hold in your chuckle as you nibble on the bacon.

"NO. JUST NO. IT'S WAY TOO EARLY FOR THIS." Papyrus replies, as he places the pot of coffee and the plate of toasts at the middle of the table.

"BREAKFAST IS READY EVERYONE!" Papyrus screams towards the other room. Which might be the living room, you guess.

You finish your bacon and look at sans. He plops to the chair next to you while fixing himself a cup of coffee.

"let's continue our little discussion later, it's gonna get a bit rowdy here." he says, stirring his cup of coffee with a spoon.

"Rowdy how?" tilting your head to the side.

The moment you ask a group of skeletons barges into the dining room.

"it smells amazin',"

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO NOT SMOKE INSIDE THE HOUSE!"

"YOU CANCER STICK! YOU LEFT ASHES ON THE SOFA AGAIN!"

"can we just eat first and continue this discussion later? im hungry,"

"NOW THAT EVERYONE'S HERE! I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE OUR GUEST!" Papyrus claps his hands together to call everyone's attention.

Everyone's eye sockets were looking straight at you.

Gulp

So many skeletons.

"AHEM!" Papyrus introduces you. Everyone was quiet, standing still, carefully looking at you. As if noticing just now that there was a stranger in their dining room.

  
You smile awkwardly and give a timid wave at their direction.

  
"SO, THIS WAS THE MUD TRACKING FILTHY HUMAN. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT WAS TO CLEAN THAT FILFTH THAT YOU LEFT IN THE LIVING ROOM? " the scarred faced skeleton says loudly. 

"Oh, uhh...I'm sorry, I wasn't aware--" You say timidly, shrinking to yourself.

"TCH! I DON'T NEED TO HEAR YOUR EXCUSES!" He cuts you off and scoffs, sitting down just across from you.

Well...

"I'M GLAD YOU'RE FEELING BETTER HUMAN! PLEASE DO HELP YOURSELF TO THE FOOD! ME AND PAPS MADE ALL OF THESE SINCE WE WERE NOT SURE ON WHAT YOU MIGHT LIKE," A much shorter and bulkier skeleton approaches you with a similar booming voice.

"I'M BLUE AND THAT WAS EDGE, DON'T MIND HIM TOO MUCH, HE GETS CRANKY IN THE MORNING. AND MAY I SAY IT WAS NICE TO FINALLY MEETCHA'! IF YOU NEED ANYTHING, DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK," Blue says while sitting down next to Edge,

"Thank you so much," You gently smile at him.

He smiles earnestly at this and winks. 

Well, that was nice of him.

Hmm...your head feels kinda funny.

"so this the human. wasn't expectin her ta' be this hot," A smooth deep voice echoes into your left. You look to turn at his direction, and wasn't expecting to see an exact copy of sans, but much sharper. Is that a gold tooth?

  
"Oh, hello," you respond awkardly,

  
"didn't know "sans" already claimed ye" he says scrutinizing you, sounding annoyed.

"Huh? I beg your pardon?" You ask, quite not sure on what means by that.

"knock it off red, she's just wearing my clothes for the meantime," sans replies lazily,

"ohooo, so she's up for the takin' don't mind if i do," he sits right next to you.

Uhh...

"hey sweetheart, the name's red, but you can call me whatever ya' like," he says,

"Oh, um...nice to meet you red," you attempted to make a handshake but instead he lifts your hand up to his...teeth.

There was a warm pulsating feeling at the back of your palm. Similar to a kiss.

You turn beet red and try ro retract your hand from his grip, but he won't let it go.

"mmm...so soft," red says in a dazed voice, "you smell so nice as well,"

"Uhh..." You try to retract your hand again but he won't budge.

There's that dull ache on your head again,

"red, stop it. she's getting uncomfortable," sans says, clearly annoyed but still has that same neutral grinning face.

"jeez sans, you already got your turn, why not share her." red says, still sniffing your hand.

  
"Umm...please stop." You try to retract your hand again, with much force this time.

"aaaw sweetheart ya' don' gotta be scared, am not gonna bite ya'." he purrs into your hand. "not unless you want me to," he says with lidded eye sockets.

  
Wait, what?

  
A piece of toast flew from your side, hitting red square on the face.

"DO NOT EMBARRASS ME FURTHER, CRETIN." Edge says with a low growl in his voice.

red suddenly lets go of your hand as if it burned him and started sweating. 

"s-sure boss, sorry, j-just got a bit carried away...hehe..." red scratches the side of his skull. 

"NOW THAT'S SETTLED, EVERYONE PLEASE DIG IN," Papyrus says breaking the silence.

Everyone started to get a piece of everything on the table. 

You try ro reach for some toast and bacon.

You just feel so awkward on what happened with red earlier so you just remain silent while you take a bite on your toast.

Wait a minute...

Your headache's getting worse and you suddenly feel light headed.

  
Maybe because It was all from the sudden food intake?

But it was just a small bite of toast though.

Your chest feels weird as well...it feels heavy, it's almost as if it's--

Wait...how long have you even been out again?

  
"MY DEAR ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Papyrus speaks up, looking at you with those concern black sockets of his.

  
You pale and started to break in cold sweat.

  
"Papyrus, how long was I out?" You quietly question, looking up.

"HMMM...A COUPLE OF DAYS, ALMOST A WEEK ACTUALLY, WHY? DOES ANYTHING HURT? ARE YOU OK?" He replies, going to your side,

  
"What day is it today?" You're sweating bullets now, and you suddenly feel hot. Very hot.

  
Papyrus mentions the date today, "MY DEAR PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG." Papyrus insists, while sans touches your forehead and pulls back.

  
Oh no.

  
"you're burning up, papyrus get some ice. i think the human is having a fever." sans says, scrunching up his browbones,

Papyrus dashes towards the kitchen. Everyone stops eating and looks at you.

"do ya think we should take 'er to the hospital?" red asks,

"No, it's fine...it's..." you try to speak up, but the unbearable ache of your body makes you groan. It hurts. Your joints hurts. Everything is stupidly hot and you started to pant.

  
"MMMM...WHAT IS THAT AMAZING SMELL," Blue speaks up, "IT SMELLS LIKE FLOWERS,"

  
No, not right now.

  
"huh, yer right, where did that come from," the tall skeleton wearing an orange hoodie speaks up, stopping mid bite on a slice of pancake.

  
Oh no, you need to get out of here. 

  
You need to get out of the house.

  
You try to stand up but sans pulled you down from your shoulders, planting you firmly back on your chair.

  
"you need to stay put, don't move too much or you might--" sans started to speak up but stops when you try to break from his hold.

  
Uncontrollable warmth seeps from your chest towards your fingertips, that familiar green glow comes alive in front of you.

  
sans groans from the contact and immediately retracts from your grip.

  
He looks bewildered as he stares straight at you, looking very confused. Sweating profusely.

  
A slight tinge of blue emits from his skull as he opens his mouth to ask,

  
"are you in heat?"


	4. Release

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader's in heat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late updates, I got a really bad cough this month :((( I'm currently on a self-quarantine in my room away from my family. So yeah, been a bit fatigued as well so I haven't really gotten the time to properly write this. Hope everyone is safe and healthy! Hope we can all withstand this pandemic. Again, stay safe, only go out if it's urgent. Hope you guys like the chapter!
> 
> Also I have a twitter if you guys want to know lol  
> @kamiiireru
> 
> I also do customized dolls lol its on my instagram  
> @kamiiiedolls
> 
> If you guys wanna check it out haha!
> 
> Again, please be safe everyone! Thank you for supporting this story!

This is it. 

Everyone has finally found out about it.  
  


Your power.  
  


You curl into yourself on the floor, trying your best to look small. You're heavily panting and sweating. It's exactly the same feeling as if you're having a really high fever, but so much worse.

Everything hurts. And by everything you mean your arms, your legs, your whole body hurts.

Your chest feels so heavy, like some invisible force is pressing down on you, making it so hard to breathe. Your body feels so weak and exhausted, as if you just ran a very long marathon. And the numbing sensation on your fingertips, felt like tiny pinpricks. Your power trying to pour out at the ends of it, while you're trying your hardest to contain and keep it all in.

And it all happened so fast. You were usually aware on the whole thing, it was gradual. It'll take a couple of days before it ends up like this.

Maybe because you were in bed for so long, that's why.

How is everyone reacting to this?

You're far too afraid to see.

But wait, sans did say that it was normal for people to have magic now.

So why were they surprised then? What was that he just said a while ago? You tuned out everything the moment your magic touched him. Was this a different type of magic from what they're used to?

Red gloved hands hovered on your shoulder before carefully coaxing you from your state.

"There, There. It's Alright My Dear."

It's Papyrus.

"P-Papyrus?" You choke out,

"You Gave Us Quite A Fright. You Suddenly Zoned Out. Please Let Us Help You, There's No Need To Be Embarrassed About Being In Heat."

"In what?" You raise an eyebrow, still sweating perfusely.

"In Heat! Why, When I First Felt It, It Was Extremely Unpleasant---"

"okaybrothatsenough" sans cuts in, blurting out so fast, which made you turn to look up at him. His whole entire skull was completely glowing bright blue.

Is that his magic?

"What does _"in heat"_ mean? Is it some sort of sickness?" You ask, clarifying your question this time.

Maybe this is normal then, since no one's panicking or causing any alarm besides sans' surprised look earlier. But why does it make him look uncomfortable.

In fact, everyone in the room does, turning around and looking anywhere but you. Sporting their own glow of color. Besides red.

"hah, go on sans, tell 'er." Red snickers besides you,

"shut it red," sans groans out, clearly annoyed.

"do ya mind if i do it then?" red suggets, waggling his brow bones.

"no."

"I'm sorry, does this situation makes everyone uncomfortable?" You ask worriedly,

The both of them stopped their bickering and looked at you.

"I-I just had to ask, since this isn't the first time...I've actually...experienced this." You finish, still panting heavily.

sans looked suprised at this, and so does red.

"huh...really? well, that's actually interesting." The orange hooded skeleton speaks up, turning around the table and coming next to you.

"i actually never met a fully grown human mage before, let alone one that goes into heat either." he says crouching besides you,

"the name's stretch by the way," he faces you and offers his hand, "nice to meet you,"

...huh.

"Uhh...nice to meet you Stretch," You take his hand and he helps you stand carefully,

"okay then, before knowing the whole science of " _being in heat_ " is, why don't you tell us how you handle it in this situation?" stretch says, urging you to sit down, which you did.

"BRO' DON'T YA' THINK THAT'S A LIL' BIT INAPPROPRIATE?" Blue says, his skull is still glowing a bright teal.

It is? How come?

"it would be better than letting her deal with this especially with such a huge amount of excess magic," Stretch says, while shrugging.

"hmm...yeah, you're right," sans scratches his chin, his skull returning to that pearlescent hue.

"so what do ya need sweetheart?" sans asks, leaning towards you,

"Uhh...This might sound weird but uhh...I need seeds." You ask timidly,  
  


"okay, i got this." red says while doing something with his belt.  
  


"BROTHER CAN YOU NOT? THAT IS DISGUSTING!" Edge Screeches and throws him a piece of pancake which quickly sticks to his face.

"can you clarify as to what kind seeds would ya want?" sans asks ignoring the whole scene.

"Any kind actually...vegetable seeds...flower seeds, Oh, and a plot of land...or dirt," You voice out while heavily panting.

sans huffed out a sigh of relief, while red wipes his face that was covered in maple syrup with the end of his sleeve.

"ALRIGHTY! I GOT SOME IN THE GARDEN SHED! SANS PLEASE TAKE HER TO THE BACKYARD, I'LL MEET YOU THERE." Papyrus says while he leapts towards the back door.

"would you be able to walk properly?" sans asks,

"Yeah, I thi--Eeeeeep!" You squeel in surprise as stretch sweeps you off your feet and cradles you, walking seamlessly out back.

Oh my goodness,

"It's fine stretch...let me walk...I'm too heavy," You sputter, blushing madly at this embarrassing feat, while struggling a bit from his hold.

"nyehehe, no you're not to both. besides i don't mind, don't move too much or you might fall," stretch replies casually.

You stopped and let him carry you. Still breathing rather heavily.

If you could get any redder, you would have by now.

"real smooth move stretch," red tsking at the side while mumbling something you didn't quite hear.

You were finally bought out to the back yard, which is a full hectre of land, trailing up into a treeline of pine trees.

"...Wow, I wasn't expecting this." You gasp out loud,

"nyeheh, not much out here but at least it's got a killer view huh. so, where do you want me to put you?" Stretch asks, while walking down the wooden balcony.

He's really strong for a skeleton monster.

"Oh, uhm...you can place me down here, if that's alright." You reply,

"yes ma'am," he complies by placing you down on the grass gently.

You breathe a sigh of relief, the moment your feet touches the soil.

The pent up energy from your chest was slowly being diffused, little by little. It was like opening a tap and letting the water out slowly. You let your magic flow just a bit, which was slowly going down to your toes. Making the grass underneath you glow green and grow a couple of inches.

"woah, amazing." Stretch was awestrucked, just beside you.

"hmm...interesting," sans was at the patio, observing you.

"so are we jus' gonna observe her from 'ere?" you hear red asks sans.

"yup, best to look after her just in case something goes wrong." sans replies, while leaning against the railing.

"UGH! I-I-I-I CAN'T WATCH THIS. T-THIS IS JUST TOO PRIVATE, I-I'M HEADING INSIDE." Blue speaks out loudly, still glowing teal and being very flusttered.

"suit yerself baby blue," red snickers out,

"...I WILL DO THE SAME. THIS IS FAR TOO INAPPROPRIATE AND SCANDALOUS! BEST FOR EVERYONE TO BEHAVE, ESPECIALLY YOU BROTHER, OR ELSE!" Edge grumbles out, before following Blue from behind.

red stiffen and replies "o-okay boss...will do!"

How is this inappropriate? Let alone scandalous. You quietly ponder as you look at them from your spot. Ash was always looking forward to seeing me do this, besides the sickness part.

" _I'll ask them later about it. For now, I need to focus on this._ " You thought as you sigh. You carefully plop down the grass, sinking your fingers into the dirt, feeling the soil from underneath you.

The soil was damp and moist, you can also tell that it was clean and unpolluted. It was perfect.

"I GOT THE SEEDS!" Papyrus merrily jogs towards you.

"HERE YOU GO MY DEAR, I HOPE THESE WILL HELP. ALTHOUGH I'M NOT QUITE SURE HOW THOUGH." He hands you the seeds.

"Thanks Papyrus, I'll let you see in a minute what these are really for." You smile gleefully at him.

He nods and gives you a thumbs up, while he joins sans in the patio.

You inspect the seeds in your hand, finding a few melon seeds, poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds here and there, a couple of magnolia seeds, but most of them were tomato seeds.

Throwing the seeds around you, you prepare to set yourself up.

Turning your back to look at everyone, you noticed that they were all staring at you, excitedly, waiting on what will happen next. Quietly anticipating your next move.

You noticed someone was peering through one of the windows upstairs, but they were quick enough to hide when you fully turn to look at them.

It actually feels invigorating to have these many eyes on you. Doing the thing that you're suppose to withold for years.

It feels liberating.

You feel free.

You look back at sans and he gave a slow nod and a small wave of his hand, signaling you to go on.  
  


And so you did,

You release your power.  
  


Closing your eyes, slowly you open the gate. That tight constricting feeling on your chest, slowly unwinding, traveling all over your body in a huge amount of energy. Immediately bathing your whole body in that warm green glow.

You hear a couple of them gasp. Clearly awestruck from your appearance.

You open your eyes and you can see every miniscule detail all around as clear as day.

"woah, her eyes are glowing green." You hear red say,

You smile at this " _well they're not freaking out,_ " you thought to yourself, taking it as a good sign to continue.

You walk a couple of feet away from them, going to the spot where you threw the seeds earlier.

As you walk, your power was trickling along the way and was leaving a trail of sprouting weeds at your wake.

You notice a particular weed that curled along your ankle and toes halting you from walking any further, chuckling at this you kneel and carefully untangle them.

_"It's odd though, my power seems to have grown. Last year, it wasn't even this much to cause a trail of weeds growing at my feet."_ You carefully observe, while finally untangling the last vine.

You continue to walk and when you lowly situated yourself onto the grass, kneeling while touching the ground.

You hear someone slowly whistle from the patio,

"damn sweetheart, everything about you is magical, even your perfect round a--" red says but was cut off when someone coughs loudly.

"red, please, can you not?" You hear sans stern voice reprimanding him.

You try to tune them out as much as you can so you can concentrate more on your task at hand.

You sink in your fingers deep into the dirt, and carefully breathe out.

"Focus." You tell yourself. As you let that energy from your chest pushed through your fingertips.

And then, you feel it with your power. The vines underneath the earth, the life in each individual root, stem and blade of grass around you. You try to give them that same energy that they crave which you have too much in you. You notice them growing, full of life, all around you.

Finally you reach out to the seeds that were spread all around you.

You trickle in your magic little by little, you can feel the seeds' protective shells begins to break and you feel the sprout slowly creeping out.

You try to do this carefully, until you felt that light tremble in the ground and you fully release your magic into them. Glowing green light basking you and your surroundings.

The sprouts grew so fast that some of their long vines were circling all around your arms and legs, and even into your hair. You were stuck into your position, covered by an array of flowers, small melons and pumpkins, and vines after vines of tomatoes.

The blinding green light dispersed and you gave a sigh of relief, that heavy weight from your chest and the pain from your body is slowly dissipating.

And as quickly as the magic came, it immediately left.

For now, atleast.

Too exhausted and magically drained you plop down into the greenery.

"huh, guess it's over," you hear sans say, above you,

huh, how did he get here so fast.

Oh right, magic...teleportation. ah, yeah that's the word. Teleportation.

Finally figuring out the word on what Sister Marge and sans did with their magic, you nod to yourself, still a little bit wozy from the stunt you did.

"so, want me to carry our sleepin' beauty?" red proposed, aligning himself next to you in the processs, with a mischievous gleem in his eye sockets.

sans notices this and moves to your other side,

"...nah, better that i do it instead," sans says, untangling you from the vines and the roots covering your body.

"It's okay, I'm fine...this always happens after all of that, just give me a few minutes and I'll be up in no time," You say, trying to reassure them, helping sans untangling the vines on your hair.

"BROTHER IS SHE OKAY?" Papyrus jogs up next to him,

"yeah, she's just exhausted from the sudden magic burst that she did back there," sans replies,

Magic burst? Is that what it's called?

Oh my gosh--

sans carefully picks you up and cradling you close to his chest so you wouldn't fall off.

"I said I'm fine, please sans, this is far too embarrassing," you struggle, but you're way too exhausted to even move, so you just end up wiggling instead.

"heh, i told ya' s'fine," he's way too amused with this.

Here we go again, another skeleton carrying you back this time. It's weird though, you'll think that they'll be quite "pokey", seeing as they're all bones. But they have that soft padding that feels like they have skin underneath their clothing.

"THAT WAS MAGNIFICENT MY DEAR! WE'LL BE HAVING THESE WONDERFUL VEGETABLES FOR A WHOLE WEEK! MAYBE EVEN A MONTH!" Papyrus beams next to sans, having plucked some of the bright red tomatoes already.

"ya' sure did great sweetcheeks, that was amazing" Red says with his low rumbling voice sounding really impressed.

"Oh, uhh...thank you." You blush at their compliment. You weren't expecting to get such a high praise from them with your stunt earlier.

"can't believe a healing magic has that kind of effect though, i guess this would've been expected coming from an adult mage." Red continues, while trailing behind sans.

Huh, you thought it was normal for everyone to use magic though. Including humans.

And what's a mage? Is that what you are?

"A mage?" You ask, looking up at sans,

He tilts his head down to look at you, "yep, s'what we call humans with magic,"

"Oooh, that does sound magical, I thought it'll be in the line of witch or wizard, even a magician." you commented, at least you know what you are now.

"snrk, don't ya' mean _mage-_ ical," he replies, while waggling his browbones,

The both of you chuckle and the next thing you know you're inside your room.

"Oh, we're here, I didn't even notice," you said, clearly surprised,

"took a shortcut," he says winking his eye socket.

You chuckle at that, "Forgot about that."

He slowly lays you down in bed.

"better get some shut eye to replenish that energy,"

You nod and tuck yourself in.

"Hey sans, if it's alright with you can we...uhh...discuss more about this magic mumbo jumbo? I actually have a lot of questions about it. Also, I need to tell you more about the institution," You say,

He looks back at you and nods, "sure, just gimme a holler and i'll shortcut straight here once you're awake."

"Alright, thanks sans." you smile and lay down, closing your eyes.

Sans exits your room as quietly as possible.

"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT! GOLLY! A HUMAN ADULT THAT CAN USE MAGIC, AN ADULT MAGE! WE NEED TO REPORT THIS TO THE KING AT ONCE," Papyrus declares behind him,

"yeah paps, we'll call tori first thing tomorrow mornin'," sans says, closing the door behind him.

"sides, we need to know 'bout this institution she's been from, maybe there are more mages there, she even said so herself, one of the nuns used teleportation similar to mine,"

"GASP, MORE ADULT MAGES! I DON'T WANT TO THINK TOO MUCH OF IT, BUT WHAT IF THE GOVERNMENT IS PLOTTING SOMETHING BEHIND IT." Papyrus worriedly says, wringing his wrists.

Papyrus has every right to be concerned, it's monster kind's freedom on the line here.

"relax paps, we're not yet sure, also we still have our own little problem right now," sans sighs, plopping down on the couch.

"ya didn't say she was that hot, didja' see her knockers? goddamn," Red pointedly accuses sans, with that lust driven gleem on his eyes.

"OH, WELL THEN, I'LL JUST GO OUT BACK TO PICK UP THE REST OF THE VEGETABLES," Papyrus sprints out,

sans sighs and massages his temples,

"shit even her scent was amazin' can't believe i wasn't able to touch 'er, ya' lucky bastards" Red pouts at this, clearly distraught while looking at sans and stretch,

"red please, you know why you can't do that," Stretch lazily replies, joining sans on the couch,

"but yeah, i have to agree though. she smells heavenly and oh so soft as well," Stretch sighs happily, clearly reimagining the scene where he carried you awhile back.

"ya' guys know it's her heat that's affecting ya' both, right?" sans speaks up,

"dun tell me s'not affectin' ya' classic," red smirks, "we know you've been holding out on us, even changing her n' everything," he snickers.

sans turns bright blue at this.

"y-you know i didn't have a choice, she was soaking wet, what do ya' want me to do?" sans says sputtering.

"suuuuuuuure," red smiling gleefully at him, "but ya' must've imagine her soft alluring body when you were carrying her back there--"sans throws a couch cushion towards red,

Red easily manuevers to the side, completely missing him. He snickers.

"pfft, i knew it. you clearly did." red grins,

"you know what, i don't need this, i'm going down to the basement to fix the goddamn machine, and take you both home as soon as possible," pushing himself out of the couch and teleporting out.

"pffft, you sure know how to push his buttons," stretch comments.

"s' easy, i'm him and he's me, we're still the same no matter how much he denies or hides it," red chuckles at this,

"right," stretch chuckles along, "come on sans, we better help classic fix the machine or he might break something out of his frustration towards you,"

Red smiles at this, It feels nice to hear his actual name being addressed to him.

"sure thing paps," red replies as the both of them walk towards the basement door getting to work.  
  
  
  



	5. Elucidate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader gets a run down on what a "heat" is...

You wake up in the late afternoon, feeling the cool breeze brush against your cheeks. Looking outside your window you can almost see the sun barely setting behind the pine covered trees.

It really is peaceful here, much like in the institute.

It was also getting a bit drafty so you decided to close the windows along with the curtains.

Scanning the room you spotted your old clothes, all neatly folded and pressed, on top of the dresser. Including your under garments.  
Blushing at this you carefully took them, you also noticed a white bath towel underneath coupled with a few toiletries.

How nice of them, you thought with a smile.

Grabbing the items you head towards the bathroom.

The bathroom was a prestine white, covered all over with white clean tiles. Not a speckle of mold anywhere. Looking up you can see various Shampoo bottles, Colognes, Loofas, and bottled liquid soaps were all aligned neatly on top of the white shelves. And the overall smell was just heavenly and clean.

You can't help but be amazed at this, this is by far the most beautiful bathroom you've ever seen or used.

Peeling off your clothes you inspected your skin more thoroughly. You remember the cuts and bruises you received when you fell down the slope and you decided to fix that with your magic.

Looking carefully though you noticed that all of them were gone. No scar, no scab, nothing. As if you had never been hurt.

Did someone use their magic on you? Was it sans? Papyrus?

You have to thank them later, they've been nothing but helpful towards you.

Deciding to use the shower by adjusting a few dials here and there, you've finally managed to thoroughly clean yourself.

It feels nice and refreshing.

Putting on your old clothes feels quite nostalgic, as if all of the things that happened last week happened a few years ago.

You need to talk to sans about the institute as soon as possible. But, there's also the thing with what they call "heat" which is currently happening to you right now and usually lasts about a week or so.

After drying your hair and neatly tying it in a half up braid your stomach made a weird gurgling sound.

Ah...I'm hungry.

Figures, you haven't ate anything besides that one toast and a piece of bacon strip this morning.

Putting on your sneakers you look at the mirror before heading down.

Your supposed to be nightgown, which is actually a sundress looks casual enough, paired with your green apple hoodie that Ash gave to you which is a bit too big and baggy, seeing that she's much more taller and leaner than you. Coupled with your hand-me-down rugged red sneakers.

So far, so good.

You open the door and the moment you do you can hear them chattering in the living room.

Sounds like they're having fun.

You carefully tiptoe down the stairs, careful to not get noticed and disturb them from their activities.

"OH, YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE!" Papyrus shouts from the sofa,

"Oh, uhh...yes, hi," you smile and wave back to Papyrus, standing awkwardly at the foot of the stairs.

"WELL DON'T JUST STAND THERE DEAR! COME SIT WITH US," He beams and pats the vacant spot between him and blue, who also looks eager for you to join them.

Sitting down you noticed that they were playing a board game, which you yourself recognize.

"Oh, 7 wonders! I've actually played this with the girls in the institute!" You voice out, recalling the moments where Ash would hoarde all of the resources and not let the other girls build their own wonder. You giggle at the thought.

"REALLY? I WOULD HAVE LET YOU JOIN, BUT WE'RE CURRENTLY AT THE SECOND AGE RIGHT NOW! BUT I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO LET YOU JOIN ONCE WE'RE DONE!" Papyrus informed,

"No problem, I don't mind just watching." You smile in response,

"By the way, where are the others?" You noticed that sans, red, stretch and edge are nowhere to be found.

"OH, IT WAS EDGE'S TURN TO COOK DINNER TONIGHT, SO HE'S AT THE KITCHEN RIGHT NOW. WHILE MY BRO', SANS, AND RED ARE DOWN IN THE BASEMENT FIXING UHH... A MACHINE," Blue responded, fully concentrated in the game.

"Oh? wow sounds interesting, what kind of machine is it?" You asks,

"UHH...ERR...IT'S UHH...A BIT OF A TOP SECRET," Papyrus says with shifty eye sockets, looking away.

Ooooh...

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry,"

"no harm, no foul," you hear a low baritone voice from behind you.

You jump out of the sofa, completely surprised.

"heh, sorry did i scare the bones outta ya'?" sans chuckles at your reaction.

"Just a bit, I wasn't expecting you to be there," you chuckle back.

"do ya' wanna talk now, or do ya' wanna eat first?" He plops down next to you in the sofa, giving you a very subtle once over look on your outfit.

"If it's alright with you if we eat first please," you reply not noticing the gesture,

"heh, you dun' need to be all proper, s'fine, i asked anyways. how are ya' feeling though?" sans leans a bit to your side.

"Oh, I actually feel a lot better now. Thank you for asking," smiling politely.

"ya' sure? not feeling woozy or anythin'?" He asked, clearly concern due to what happened this morning.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I'll tell you more about it after dinner, okay?" You pat his hand reassuringly,

"k." His eyelights brightens at the gesture.

"alrighty scooch over, make some room," red sits in between the both of you.

"hey--" sans sputters out,

"Oh, uhh...hey red," you greet, scooching a bit to Papyrus' side.

"hey sweetheart, i see ya' got all doll'd up," he gives your outfit a quick glance, "yer' really pretty in that, well yer pretty in anything ya' wear" he smirks, red eyelights brigthening.

"Oh!" Blushing at the compliment you demurely touch your cheeks, "uhhh....Thank you, I-I just figured it would be nice to wear my old stuff again,"

"The sundress really suits ya', really brightens up t' room," Red continues,

"...Oh, pfft, that's a good one," You chuckle at the joke,

"ppreciate ladies that knows a good humor when they 'ear it, specially with puns" he grins.

"Oh really?" You chuckle,

"RED, PLEASE DON'T---" Papyrus starts,

"You know what, Red's a nice color and all," you grab the end of his red sweater, feeling the soft knitted fabric between your fingers.

Red completely freezes from your bold move.

"But I prefer Turquiose better, It's been _Cyan-_ tifically proven," you finish with a gleem in your eyes,  
  


The whole household went quiet.  
  


The only noises you can hear were coming from the kitchen. Other than that everyone stopped what they were doing and looked straight at you.  
  


Red and Sans were staring at you dumbfounded.  
  


Both Papyrus and Blue's jaws were agape,  
  
  


Oh dear...Was it that bad? Did I offend them?  
  
  


Papyrus and Blue's face both fell as they both cry out "WHY?" at the same time.

Oh no,

As you were about to apologize Sans and Red suddenly bursts out laughing,

"oh gosh, i-i wasn't expecting that," Red heaves,

"hehehe...bet ya' _Red_ that somewhere," sans snickers,

"Nah, my sister Ash said it, and it totally _Blue_ my mind," You rebuttle,

"well then, color me impressed," Red snides,

Papyrus and Blue groans, facepalming on the whole exchange.

You chuckle at everyone's reaction, while a loud cough breaks through the room.

"AHEM! DINNER IS DONE YOU MONGRELS, GET YOUR COCCYX IN THE DINING ROOM STAT BEFORE THE FOOD GETS COLD. THAT INCLUDES YOU HUMAN." Edge sneers.

Oh, okay then,

"Well, let's continue this punnery some other time before things gets _Violet,"_ You smile and stood up to walk towards the dining room.

"oh gosh, a girl after my own heart," Red feigns, gripping a bunch of his sweater on his chest for effect.

"she's quite the character, ain't she?" Sans remarks besides him.

"you can say that again," Red trails behind you while you converse with Blue.

When you reached the dinning room you sat down in between Blue and Edge.

Looking at the table you were awestruck to find a wide variety of pasta dishes spread all around.

Small baskets of Garlic breads and breadsticks were scattered around the table, allowing everyone to get a piece, trays of Lasagnas, Spaghetti Bolognese, Chicken Alfredo Fetuccine, coupled with Parsean Shakers all around makes the whole table bountiful.

While you were drooling at every single dish at the table you didn't notice Edge as he pushes the tray of Lasagna on your way.

"EAT." He grunts out.

"Oh! Thank you very much! They all look so delicious I couldn't decide which I dish to try first." You reply with a smile. Taking a slice of lasagna to your plate.

Edge merely grunts "OF COURSE" at your compliment, but you don't mind.

Gosh, it smells heavenly. It's been a while since you had any Lasagnas. It's usually one of those special kind of ocassion dishes which are usually served during Christmas or New Year.

You take a forkful and bite into it.  
  


Oh my gosh.  
  


"Woah! This is amazing! It tastes so good!" You chew slowly, savoring the rich and flavorful sauce of the lasagna.

You sigh in content and swallow. Diving your fork to take another bite, and another and another.

And another.

And another.

Gosh, you really were hungry.

Come to think of it, you were always like this after "heat".

"BUT OF COURSE! THE GREAT MASTER CHEF P--EDGE IS NOTHING SHORT OF AMAZING! DO HELP YOURSELF TO MORE OF MY SUPERIOR PASTA DISHES HUMAN." He pushes the chicken alfredo and proudly puffs out his chest.

Once your lasagna was finished you took some Chicken Alfredo.

"Pfft, sweetheart slow down a bit, the food's not going anywhere," Sans remarks across the table, clearly amused as you slurp the noodles.

Oh gosh, where are your manners.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was--uhh...It's just, I never have tasted such good pasta before," you fidget, taking a bite of the chicken alfredo, but rather doing it slowly.

"don't sweat it, i toldja' to relax. also, you got sauce on your cheek, right here," Sans points to his left cheek, just besides his teeth.

Oh...oops

"Here?" You try to wipe it off with the napkin,

"pfft, no. here lemme get it for ya,'" He leans across the table towards you, reaching for your cheek.

When all of a sudden a blue gloved finger quickly swiped across your cheek from your right peripheral.

Startled, you lean back and saw that it was Blue who did it.

Stopping sans in the process.

"GOT IT!" He cheers, and all too suddenly licks it off from his finger.

Ooooooooh...they have tongues. And it's...blue.

Well, that's neat. No wonder they can eat properly.

"IT TASTES A LOT MORE SWEETER FROM WHAT I REMEMBER," He says innocently with a wink.

Oh gosh, what--- what was that?

You suddenly turn very red.

"Oh, uhm...thanks blue," You reply, trying your hardest to calm yourself.

Was that normal?...is that a monster thing?...

You decided that it was a monster thing.

Sans plops back to his seat and looks at Blue with wide sockets. Clearly surprised.

"heh, blueberry got ya' beat." Red broke the the silence with a snicker.

"shut it, red," Sans replies, eating the rest of his pasta.

When you finished your second dish and was about to reach for the Bolognese, Blue beats you to it and reaches for the tray to hand it to you.

"OH, BY THE WAY! THE OTHERS MENTIONED YOUR AMAZING ABILITY TO GROW PLANTS USING YOUR MAGIC THIS MORNING!" He beams, and you thank him for the tray.

"I WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD HELP ME WITH MY VEGETABLE GARDEN. I'M ACTUALLY HAVING A HARD TIME GROWING A COUPLE OF CORN COBS!" Blue smiles eagerly, stars glowing in his eye sockets instead of the usual blue orbs.

Wow, so their eyelights can do that. Amazing.

You snapped out of your thoughts when you notice Blue was eagerly awaiting for your answer.

"Oh, I would be more than happy to help you with it, how about tomorrow morning?" You reply,

"GREAT! IT'S A DATE!" He says with another wink,

Wait, what...

"smooth move brother," Stretch chuckles from your far right.

When did he get here?

"wow blue, didn't know ya' had it in ya'" Red playfully sneers,

"blue, I don't think that's a good idea. remember she's in heat," Sans interferes while slurpping his pasta with his teeth.

"I don't mind tho--"

"lemme explain to ya' bout it before you decide on anything else, sound good?" Sans cuts you off before you can even finish your sentence,

"Oh...alright," you nod and finish off your pasta,

You noticed Blue pouting in the corner of your eye.

But when you turn to fully face him, his face automatically becomes friendly.

"IS SOMETHING THE MATTER?" He asks, blue shiney orbs staring back at you with a sweet and friendly smile.

"Oh, It's just that...I'm sorry if I can't decide just yet," You reply instead.

"OH, S'FINE! NO WORRIES! I CAN WAIT" He smiles wide.

Awww...

"That's so nice of you, thank you for understanding."

You must've read him by mistake.

"you done?" Sans asks as he brings his plate towards the kitchen.

"Yup," You carry yours and follow him.

"Thanks for meal Edge, can't wait to try more of your dishes!" You beam,

"B-BUT OF COURSE! ANYONE CAN TELL THAT MY SUPERIOR COOKING SKILLS ARE SECOND TO NONE! THIS WASN'T EVEN MY SPECIALTY--" Edge seems to radiate with confidence which you really admire.

"huh? really?i thought this was already your---" Red speaks up and groans, bending down to reach for his foot.

"Oh no, what happened?" You ask

"i uh...kicked the...table by mistake," Red replies, sweating profusely looking at Edge.

"IGNORE HIM! HE'S ALWAYS LIKE THAT," Edge continues, 

"you comin'?" Sans peeks at the corner of the kitchen's door.

You nod and thanked Edge for the meal once again.

"you can jus' leave it in the sink, blue's on dish duty today," He gently places his plate down the sink. Nodding you do the same.

"do ya' mind if we talk in the study?" Sans asks with a slight grin,

"Oooh, where is that?" Come to think of it the whole house is huge, and you haven't really seen everything just yet.

"somewhere at the end of the hallway, but I know a shortcut," he bows down like a gentleman and offers you his arm,

Pfft...what goofball

"If you must insist kind Sir, please do lead the way," You chuckle and wind your arm around his.

Wait a minute...

Hmmm....it feels like he has meat in his bones.

It feels like you're holding onto a human who is a little bit on the pudgy-side, you observe.

"finish feeling up my strong muscles?" He waggles his brow bones.

You turn beet red at the implication. "Oh, I'm sorry...I didn't mean to--"

"s'fine, i don't mind...ya' must've been curious." He replies, "oh and before you ask, it's called magic," Making jazz hands with his other hand.

He walks the both of you inside of the dark pantry and the minute he closes the door you're suddenly standing in the middle of a big mahogany room. Surrounded by tall wooden book sheleves paired with a wooden office table at the side and an unlit fireplace in between two large windows was placed at the opposite side of the main door.

It was majestic to say the least.

"Wow...I would never imagine to see something like this here." You say in awe,

"heh...i know what ya' mean. this doesn't really fit the ol' aesthetic of the house. it was the only part of the house that we didn't really touched when we got it. make yourself comfortable." Sans replies, sitting down on the big revolving leather office chair behind the desk.

You sat on the opposite side of the table, placing your hands neatly on your lap.

"now, before we start, just so ya' know, my intentions are to not make you uncomfortable in any way, it's to bring awareness on your current predicament. should ya' have any questions or what not feel free to ask,"

You nod and he starts,

"first thing first, let's talk about what you're currently experiencing...being n' heat. now, m' not an expert on the ins and outs of a human body but i do know that s' not common for _regular_ humans by any standard to experience this, gonna call them normies jus' ta' identify the type o' human im talkin' about,"

"the human body for the normies 'ave ways t' adapt when their bodies encounter sudden abnormal changes, which can either be internal or external. if s' too cold, ya' shiver, s' a natural response of your body to warm you up. same reaction when s' too hot, ya' perspire."

"now...it's basically the same concept when you're in heat. from what i observed, mages have this stored up magic within them, trap in their physical forms. it can't get out unless you use 'em. if ya' don't use your magic, it stores up and builds up inside of you. which might be the case on why you're experiencing a very high fever, s' your physical body's way of tryin' to expel the magic out of you, but it can't,"

Ooooh...I see, that explains a lot.

"ya' see, us monsters, we can naturally expel the excess magic within us, since we're entirely made up of magic. s' kinda like breathin', so we rarely experience that type of "heat" phase. guess it also depends on the type of monster, but like i said, it's rare.

"although, we too experience excess magic once in a while, though being in heat for us is usually meant for somethin' else."

Sans' eyelights looks to the side while scratching his jaw.

"for mages, based on my observations earlier, since we've never encountered a fully grown mage before, like i said s' mostly to release excess magic. while for monsters, with that enough excess magic, bein' in heat means you're ready to conceive or reproduce." He says, still avoiding eye contact, the slightest tinting of blue settling on his cheekbones.

Oh.

Ooooooooooh.

You can't help but mimic the gesture, sporting your own cheeks with red.

"I see, that explains Edge's and Blue's reaction this morning," You voice out.

"ye' kinda," He scratches his jaw, and clears his throat.

"it's a yearly process as well. all monsters that are of age experience this...and can also determine if another monster is experiencing this or is suceptible to reciprocate. monsters in heat usually emits uhh...some sort of magical trail that attracts eligble monsters to uhh...mate."

Oh,

Oh gosh....

You turn beet red at this. So it's that kind of heat.

"Uhh...was I trying to emit something like that with my magic earlier then?" You ask,

"...yeah...uhh...there's no sugar coatin' it, you were. n' it's really powerful. i think for female normies it's what they call ovulating, they release a certain phermone that attracts the opposite sex. the effect can either be that they smell great or would be described as somewhat glowing/radiant or both. for monsters s' kinda like that...their magic leaves a trail which usually contains the smell of their magic...which can leave certain effects to the eligible monsters within the proximity," Sans replies.

Oh geez, that made you very concious.

"the effect s' usually more prominent to those who are not in a relationship, which s' basically everyone in the household...the effect makes the eligible monster tries to please or pursue the one trying to emit the magical trail...make 'em nicer, sweeter, endearing to the other party...to be honest, m' not really this trusting to people, especially to humans," He pauses and clears his throat.

"but i guess the effect for me, makes me easily trust ya'...s' that s' not common for me to trust strangers immediately, hope it doesn't offend ya'..." He looks straight at you,

"It's fine,I completely understand, I'm greatful that you're being honest on the whole situation and for explaning the matter to me." You say earnestly,

"m just glad you're taking it like a champ, do ya' have any questions so far?" He asks

"Well...when Edge and Blue mentioned that it was inappropriate to use my magic in front of everyone. What do they mean by it? Since you mentioned before that mages, like myself, can use magic freely." 

"uuuhh..." Sans turns completely Blue.

Oh no, what monster faux pass did I do this time.

"um...remember when i told ya' that mages have excess magic which causes it to build up within themselves? and uh...well...uh...monsters with magic build up, when not used to reproduce is often handled by releasing the pent up magic by themselves...which you managed to do earlier...it's uhh...basically like....masturbation for us." He stutters and silently says the last few words more of like a whisper.

What?

Did you just...

You cover your whole face with your hands. Trying to hide the embarrassment on what you did earlier.

"Hnnnnngh!" You squeel in your hands,

Oh gosh, oh gosh oh gosh...oh no,

Way to make a first impression,

"don't worry s' not that bad, we also need to be there jus' in case something bad happens, we...uh...never saw a fully grown mage before, so we were not quite sure on how to handle the situation properly, so we had to observe..." He tries to coax you from your embarrassment, moving around the desk to lightly pat your shoulder, 

"its not as bad as you humans thought it would be, but uhh...yeah, since we now know the gist of what just happened earlier, and by the looks of it the heat usually lasts for a week, we can pretty much leave ya' alone whenever you have to do that," Sans tries to reassure you, still patting you lightly.

Yeah, It usually does lasts a week but...

Another week...?

But you couldn't afford another week. You've already wasted enough time when you were out of it.

You need to get back to Ash and the girls as soon as possible.

"Sans, I know that you and everyone else here has been nothing but kind, It might be due to the heat but regardless I'm still very greatful to it," You hold on to his skeletal hand, 

"But, I can't afford another week, I need to go back to the institute to save my sister, and everyone else, and I know I'm asking for too much, but I need your help on doing it,"

"but, it's a bit dangerous to leave the house in your condition, another thing with heat is that it can get you pretty emotional. it might be best if you rest it out for a while," Sans' browbones scrunches up with worry,

"Sans, you don't understand, I haven't told you this since I was doubtful with it myself, but when we were trying to escape...we heard a couple of the hall monitors there talking about resources and potentials, turning into gruesome states. I never really processed it correctly but I know that It's not good, and thinking about my sister, that she's been caught...and what sort of punishment will be done towards her, I just couldn't remain still...I need to know that she's okay." Tears are brimming at the edge of your eyes, threathening to fall. But you won't let it, you need to be strong and have a clear mind on this.

"Call me crazy or whatever but i need to go back, I need to know that she and the other girls are doing fine." You finish,

Living like this, being free and being taken care of, regardless of the embarrassment on what you experience earlier, the guilt has finally caught up with you, and is gnawing at you right now.

Sans seeing your pleading face can't help but give in, maybe it was the heat that's affecting him, or maybe not. All he knows that he has a really strong urge to help you. Other than that, what really caught his attention was the word "potential", he knows that he had heard of it before. He just can't pinpoint where though, but it rang a distinct chord. That and the word gruesome doesn't boad well. 

Sighing he looks at you once again,

He's getting soft...

Fine, just this once and then he'll have to ask Tori on what to do next. 

"okay okay, we'll go. but we'll only go once you've finished taking care of your heat, just to stabalize you for a bit. I need to ask red for help on this one as well, for good measures, let's discuss it with him on where to locate the institute by tomorrow morning." He reassures you, patting your shoulders.

You smile so wide, so genuinely, that Sans was comepletely dumbfounded.

Wow...

Sans wasn't prepared for it when you suddenly hug him, muttering your thank yous and your greatfulness.

He wouldn't have thought how soft and squishy your body feels against him.

He blushes madly.

.....

You would be the death of him.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aplogies for the long wait! I got a really sick for the past month, but I'm okay now! Hope everyone is doing fine! 
> 
> Would also like to ask if anyone is interested in proof reading my works lol (is this what they call beta reading?) Since this is my first time making a fanfic im really sure on what im doing lol and since english is not my first language...im not sure if im doing it correctly either XD so getting help would really mean alot!
> 
> Anyways, you can contact me through my social media accounts below if youre interested!
> 
> Instagram: www.instagram.com/kamiiireru/  
> Facebook: kamiiireru  
> Twitter: kamiiireru  
> Tumblr: camiiiiie
> 
> Hope to hear from you soon! Cheers!


	6. Occurrence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're heading back.

After last night's discussion with Sans, you immediately went upstairs and prep early for bed. Trading your day outfit for a large white shirt and black basketball shorts that you found in the drawer for your PJs.

You went in early but had a hard time sleeping, you were just so excited and eager for tomorrow to come. 

  
You just can't wait to see everyone.

  
  


  
"uh...i take it you didn't get much sleep last night?" Sans looks up from his crossword puzzle on the couch as you decend down the stairs.

  
"Is it that obvious?" You groggily reply as you plop down the couch besides him.

  
You have the decency to change into your sundress but was too lazy to wear the jacket. So you opt to go downstairs with what you have. 

  
Besides it was getting hot.

  
"just a bit, want some coffee?" He asks tilting his mug up with printed quote "bad to the bone" to his mouth. 

  
Haha...neat mug,

  
"Mmm...m' good," You lazily reply, slouching further into the sofa.

  
Mmm...so comfy

  
"pfft ya' sure? want something to eat?" He response, peeking up from his mug. 

"..."

Ah, you doze off.

  
Sans watches you closely, as gravity slowly lolls your head down towards the armrest. He catches your head with his hand and carefully tilts you towards to his side to keep you from sliding further...

...aaaaaand now you have your head on his shoulder.

Oh boy,

  
He decides to put his mug on the coffee table as to not spill it. But as soon as he was about to do it, Sans stills as you move your whole body to his side and circle your smooth soft arms around his torso.

  
Ooooooh boy,

Who knew you would be cuddler.

  
Wait a minute, what if the others saw you? 

  
They'd probably think that he's taking advantage on the situation. Especially during your heat week.

Ugh, he doesn't need that kind of misunderstanding right now.

He only rose up this early since he was suppose to call Tori and make preparations to visit the institute.

  
Paps, Edge and Blue are out for their daily morning exercise. Thank god it's a saturday, so they usually end up going to the open market to pick up a few things afterwards. So that'll give him 2 hours tops before they arrive.

  
Red and Stretch will be up much later.

  
But he did mention to Red last night that he needs to talk to him early today.

...shit

  
Red doesn't usually obey him to begin with anyways.

So maybe he's safe....for now, atleast.

  
"Mmm..." You stir in your sleep as you hug Sans a bit tighter.

  
You should've been uncomfortable by it, seeing how he's all bones. But you try to find comfort on the bulky layers of his clothing. Digging your hands into the fabric...touching a rib and a spine here and there.

  
Oh shit.....

He tries to control his magic Breathing in and out, the excess magic that he's currently producing. Trying to keep level headed on this situation.

He notices you shift into a more comfortable position.

You're so soft...and you smell so nice. Floral and sweet.

  
Goddammit, focus.

  
Sans carefully resumes his task at hand, placing the mug down at the edge of the table while leaning a bit to the side to catch a whiff of your scent on the top of your head, 

  
Well that's not creepy and weird at all...

  
Stop it, he chides himself.

  
He carefully tries to extract your arms from his waist, touching your soft and delicate skin, reminding him of the texture of smooth fine silk. 

  
...Oh god,

  
He can't help but feel your skin more, and with so much of it expose. It was truly tempting. 

But he tries his best to resist, brushing his phalanges slowly from your elbows and up towards your shoulders, carefully trying to push you away.

  
You wouldn't budge.

  
His phalanges digs in a bit, as you try to retain your vice grip around him. Underneath that delicate soft skin, he feels the strong hard bones of your clavicle, 

  
stop.

  
it.

...

  
.....wait a minute,

You're getting hot. Oh no,

It's the heat. Your heat's starting up again. Shit, Sans needs to wake you up fast before he drowns from that strong excess magic you're releasing.

  
Your scent's getting powerful, 

A waft of overpowering floral scent invades his nasal bone.

You give out a small groan, 

  
Shit.

  
He tries to shake you this time, but to no avail. Why do you sleep like the dead?...like the dead...heh...

Focus.

  
Please,please, pleeeeease wake up,

You're starting to sweat and pant, and when all too suddenly he feels a bursts of green magic release from your body, washing over him like a heat wave.

He was so surprised, that his whole being absorbs it.

  
It feels warm and soothing,

It feels like being bathe under the warmth of the sun, warm and cozy all over. That exact same feeling of seeing the sun for the first time. Feeling happy and at ease...healing his troubles and worries away. He feels contented.

  
It feels so nice, 

It feels so good,

Particularly around his waist, well in this case his spine, where you're currently clinging on to dear life.

"fuck..." He curses,

  
Another bursts of magic hits him,

  
He groans, his attempts getting weaker, letting himself submit to it rather than fight it instead.

He just wants to hug you tight and never let go....

  
Fuuuuck, 

He can't do this, you need to wake up stat. He practically screams your name and shakes you so hard, it has you bouncing your head from side to side.

  
You finally open your eyes and slowly release your grip.

"w-what?..." You groggily response, head pounding from the rough awakening.

Oh thank god, you're awake, sans sighs in relief.

  
"hehe...sorry 'bout that, you were really squeezing me tight," Sans chuckles awkwardly, his whole skull was bright blue. You also noticed sweat beaded at the top of his head.

  
"Oh....Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to," you push yourself away from him, blushing madly.

  
"hehe...no sweat, uhh...maybe you should head back out in the garden and take care of that heat," he pats your shoulder reassuringly, lingering far longer than usual.

  
"Oh...Oh! So that's why," You carefully touch your head and your neck with the back of your hand, feeling your rising temperature.

"Oh geez, I'm really sorry about this Sans,"

"like i said, no sweat," He merely shrugs and lets you scurry out into the garden.

"well, that's entertaining. glad i woke up early for that," Red snickers at the top of the stairs.

  
"w-what--" Sans sputters, "how did--when did you get in here?" 

  
"been up for a while since ya' mentioned sweetheart needed our help with somethin', wasn't expecting that though" He continues to snicker,

Sans' skull lit up bright blue all over,

"it-it was--"

"save yer breathe, ya' don't have to make excuses," Red grins mischievously,

"...ugh...it wasn't like that okay?" Trying to reason out,

"you were totally feelin' her bones back there though, admit it." Red still has that grin plastered on his face.

"i didn't--" Sans lets out fruatrated groan covering his face with his hands. "red, please it's way too early for this,"

  
"so? how did it feel? touchin' skin for real for the first time? and not the usual awkward "lets-get-this-over-with-cause-i-don't-wanna-be-rude-to-a-monster" kind of thing."  
Red waggles his browbones,

He releases an exasperated sigh, Red's not gonna let this issue drop easily ain't he?

But yeah, he's right. The most contact he ever has with any kind of human was that sweaty not-to-pleasant awkward handshake. Which usually lasts 2 - 3 seconds tops and left a very bad impression on him with the largest human organ.

  
Your skin however, was so much nicer.

  
So much so that he drifted off from his line of thought and completely forgot to answer Red. Red on the other hand, had that goofy teasing grin on his face.

"that good huh?"

.....

"ya' know what...let's just get down to business on what we're gonna do today..." 

"pfft...kaaaay, if ya' wanna play it like that i'll tease ya' about it later," Red chuckles,

  
....goddamit

  
\---------

  
There's just so much space here.

Acres upon acres of land stretch towards the forest, as far as the eye could see. 

The institute's big and all but it's shrouded by trees and cliffs all around. It feels...restricting.

  
You've never truly experienced being so free, not like this.

  
Wide open spaces, the powers that you are so used to hide from everyone, now can be used and seen out in the open, and the monsters...that were nothing but kind and thoughtful towards you.

  
Letting you stay inside their home, cooking you food, giving you a room to sleep in, clothes to borrow, letting you use their bathroom, and not to mention saving you in the first place. Giving their never ending kindness to a complete stranger that they just found out in the river.

You really are truly thankful towards them, 

....then you made that oh so comfortable move a while ago on Sans, 

Ugh, that was so embarrassing. Just by remembering it makes you cringe internally.

Good thing he was so forgiving, sparing you from further embarassment by letting you go out here to take care of your heat.

Come to think of it, it's just so weird, to think there was such a negative impression of people using or hearing the word "monster". But the actual beings are quite far from the opposite on what that word means commonly to you. Not like the movies or stories that were told towards you when you were young.

Now you wonder what the actual world is right now. As if you were stuck in an old timeline in the confines of that institute. 

How come this type of big news was never even mentioned there? And to think that this occured 5 years ago, as per Sans, that they came out from their underground prison.

You thought about it, and still recall the story books that you usually borrow from the library to read to the young ones that contains negative impressions on the term monsters. Surely if the word now describes to an actual living being, wouldn't it be proper that they would have replaced that type of word by now? Or better yet dispose the materials that have that kind of description? If you were to prepare the children inside the institute for the outside world, wouldn't it be best that they know these things? 

You ponder for a while and give out a long sigh.

You'll find out more about it later today when you finally confront them. 

  
The superiors, the nuns and the hall monitors.

  
Just thinking about it makes you jittery and nervous.

Shaking of that negative tension you decided to go back to your task by making a proper vegetable garden for your generous hosts, as a thanking gift for all their help, as well as an apology to sans.

You found a hoe and a few gardening tools from the garden shed earlier and quickly got to work. Once the land was plot out evenly, you carry on by planting the seeds neatly in rows. Deciding to do this properly this time. Unlike yesterday's hiccup which was a bit messy, leaving a strange patch of mixed assortments of flowers, fruit and vegetables in the middle of the grassfield. You'll try to fix that up next by replanting them after this.

Standing up and shaking off the excess dirt from your hands and your dress you inspect your hardwork, panting a bit, trying to catch your breathe from the magic you spent. Well, so far so good. 

Rows of Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Cucumbers were neatly aligned at the far left side of the massive backyard, and a small herb patch was neatly placed at the center, containing Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Dill and Parsely.

6 rows of corn stalks were placed evenly to the farther right side of the plane, containing 8 corn stalks per row. You remember blue mentioning that he wanted to plant corn cobs at last night's dinner. Hope he likes them.

The plants can even use the rows as a tool for moisture control as well. When winter comes in the snow that will be collected can give the soil an extra boost of moisture in areas that are normally drier than others. Or the rows may prevent excess snow from accumulating on spots that can be too wet during spring planting.

  
You finish everything off by planting Amaranth, a type of purplish flower weed, which makes a great mulch between the rows by competing with other weeds and conserving ground moisture.

You've tried to make the whole mini farm little to no effort to maintain as much as possible.

  
You wouldn't have done any of this if it was any other regular day. Good thing the magic from your heat was well spent.

Finally deciding to head back, you walk towards the garden shed to clean up and place all of the used tools back to their places.

You were so engrosed about your task at hand, that you didn't notice sans approaching behind you.

"hey..."

Surprised by the sound you hit your head on the top shelf, giving out a small yelp.

"oh, sorry," He says, hiding a small chuckle.

"Haha...it's fine, it's fine. No harm done," You turn to look at him.

"i saw what ya' did in the backyard, it's amazing. paps and the others will love it. thanks," He says, his eyelights giving a soft glow.

"Oh, of course. It's the least I could do after what you guys have done for me," giving a small smile in return,

He smiles genuinely at this and scratches his cheek, sporting a subtle blue glow around them.

"Are we ready to leave?" You ask while wiping your hands on a piece of cloth you found in the shed.

"yup" He says with a pop, "better clean up yourself properly in the bathroom before we go though." Sans was walking by your side as the both of you head back towards the big house.

"Oh, okay. I'll be ready in a jiffy," You ran up the porch opening up the screen door.

"woah there kiddo, ya' sure you're okay with this? you're not feeling woozy or 'nything?" 

"Sans I'm fine, really. I tried to control my magic back there and not release all of it at once." You turn to him with a reassuring smile, "It's fine, I'm not gonna faint again."

"k, if ya' say so. i'll wait for ya' in the kitchen, better get some breakfast in yer bones to prep ya' for the day ahead," Sans says opening the door for you.

Aaaw, how sweet.

"heh...i try," he replies, the light blue dusting returning to his cheekbones.

"Didn't mean to blurt that out," You giggle, "But I'm glad I did, thanks Sans." You move pass him and jog towards the stairs and up to your room.

You're feeling much more energize after releasing that magic.

Taking a quick shower and patting yourself dry, you rummage through the drawers for something to wear. Borrowing a simple white astronomy statement shirt that reads "Back in my days we have 9 planets", which you totally agree with, and a put on a pair of plain black jogging pants.

Tightening the drawstrings of the jogging pants to properly fit you, you got your apple green hoodie behind the door, zipping it half way through.

_So far, so good_

You reach down to get your sneakers under your bed and quickly shove your feet in them. 

_This is it. I'm finally going back to save them._

A mix of emotions washes over you. You're excited to finally see them, but you're also nervous on what you might find out.

Will you finally find out the secrets of the institute? How is everyone doing? Will you be able to confront Sister Marge and ask about her magical abilities? How is Ash?

_I hope she's okay._

You clasp your hands together, bowing your head down.

"Please let her and everyone else be okay, and please let our journey be safe." you give out a silent prayer.

Letting yourself calm down a bit, you give a quick scan to your room. You don't have anything else besides...you reach down on the lumpy inner pocket of your hoodie and notice the seeds that Aislinn gave you were still there.

It might come in handy, since you can finally use your magic out in the open now.

Nodding you put it back and wear your hair up in a ponytail. Finally taking one final look in the mirror.

  
You're ready for this.

You'll finally save everyone, 

You'll finally see Ash again.

  
Closing the door with a soft creak you went down the stairs and head for the kitchen.

You immediately spot Red and Sans discussing discreetly to theirselves,

"...report back to tori on our findings," 

"Hey guys, sorry to keep you so long, I'm ready." You speak up as you enter the kitchen.

"hey kid, eat somethin' first before we go. i made microwavable pancakes, help yerself." He pushes a plate full of it towards you. 

You pick up a piece and eat it as it is.

...

...

Microwavable pancakes are....something.

  
Nevertheless you still ate the whole thing, better to have something since you won't know how long your trek back to the institute will take.

"...wow, she ate it all without batting an eye." Red snickers,

"so, how was it?" Sans chuckles besides Red,

"Uh, it's okay I guess," You reply, coughing a bit.

  
"pfft, you don't need to be nice about it sweetheart, we all know it tasted like soggy cardboard," Red chuckles,

"Pfft, okay uh...just a smidge, but it's edible." You prove this by grabbing another and eating it.

.....

Well, you had worse...

  
Swallowing it down with a glass of water, which Red graciously provided, you look up at them expectantly.

"now that yer full and ready, we need to go back down the river where we last saw you." Sans says this while standing up and eating the remaining pancakes.

"we need you to point out a few things so we can properly locate the institute. startin with, do ya' remember for how long you were in the river?"

"It felt like hours, but I guess I was just so tired and exhausted that's why it dragged out for so long. But what I do know is when Ash woke me up to escape it was around 3:00 AM and it took a while before I actually got the chance to get out of the institute. So I guess I was in the river around past 4:00 AM....?"  
You concluded, 

"hmm...makes sense. paps dragged me outside around 5 due to the storm. it might not be too far from here then. ready red?" Sans opens the door leading to the backyard.

"ready as i'll ever be," Red drags himself out of the kitchen and out to the door, stopping midway.

"wow, we got our own produce aisle here, ya made this doll?" Red whistles, clearly surprised to the once vast landscape turning into a small farm.

"Yeah, I did. Hope it's okay with you guys. It's the least I can do to everyone that showed their kindness towards me here," 

"aaw shucks, that's sweet of ya' but it's actually the other way around though, ya showed a lot of yer kindness during your--" 

Sans practically shoves Red to the side as he comes out of the door locking it in the process.

"let's go," Sans has that neutral grin on his face but you notice it twitching at the corner.

"pfft, k." Red just grins,

  
Sans leads your group down a path behind the wooden pine trees, which was a 10 minute walk from the house. 

The sun's rays were blocked off from the thick foliage of the trees above. Giving that eerie bluish glow surrounding the quiet forest.

You can't imagine going through here at night. It's a bit eerie. As if someone's watching behind the trees.

As you recall, Papyrus was the one who rescued you, how was he able to trek through this in the early dawn with barely any light. Might have been with a flashlight. But still, you can't help but be creeped out a bit in this thick and dense forest.

"almost there," sans voices out,

You notice that the both of them are quiet. Even Red doesn't have any snide remarks, which is quite odd with his loud personality.

As you take a quick peek behind you, you see him looking at the surroundings, being quite alert as if someone were to ambush your lot.

When he noticed you looking at him, his features relaxed, and he gave you quick wink.

"see somethin' ya' like?" He purrs,

You just giggle at his flirtatious remark. You're quite used to this kind of playful banter with Ash, so you don't mind or take a grain of salt in it.

"Just noticed that you're awfully quiet, it's as if a bear would come out at any given time." 

"pfft...something like that, someone might try ta' pick a bone with us," He shrugs,

"Uhhh...there aren't any bears or wolves around here right?" Well you're quite deep in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, so there might be a chance...? You asked, just to be sure.

"nah, nothing like those," Red stops and looks at your dead serious,

You give out a sigh of relief,

"there's somethin' much worse," Red chuckles darkly,

"quit scaring her red," Sans shouts from the front.

"heh, just messing with ya' sweetheart, ya' think we're going to let somethin' bad happen ta' ya? pfft, fat chance," He pats your shoulder from the side, trailing his hand to land on the small of your back, before pushing you forward,

"let's go," Red finishes, 

Well, that didn't actually calm down your nerves, but it's reassuring to say the least.

You finally reached the clearing, which took you about 15 minutes or so inside the forest.

Wow, never thought this was once the raging river that swallowed you whole last week.

The water's crystal clear, so much so that you're seeing small fishes swimming underneath. It looks real nice to swim in it.

There's a fishing net and other fishing gears cast to the side on a big rock. Must've been Papyrus'. You carefully examine your surroundings, looking at the high cliff on the other side, and appreciating the beautiful slow and steady stream of the river near you.

That's a big river,

"let's head up stream," Sans calls out, while you and Red silently follow.

20 minutes of trekking and looking around, you're still not familiar with the surroundings. 

"hmm..." sans stops and leans on a nearby boulder, carefully observing it. 

"there's a very faint magic trail here. red?"

Red jogs a bit towards sans, squinting at the boulder.

"yer right, this rock was moved by magic, dunno if it's a gravitational magic though since it's been a week or so, so the trail is a bit faint," Red grumbles,

"How were you guys able to know?" You ask aloud, peeking behind them.

The both of them stared back at you, probably thinking of a way to explain it properly which is easier to understand.

"...she still can't see it then," Red speaks up,

"well, she did mention that she hasn't been using her magic out that much, so that's why," Sans replies,

You tilt your head to the side, figuring out what they're talking about.

"ya' see it's a bit like...feeling the wind between your phalanges, " sans says this by wiggling his, for effect,

"s' a natural sense to us monsters, since like i toldja' we're basically made out of magic ourselves so we can detect it easily. but, if we spread our magic even more, making some sort of like a barrier/force field around our premise, it acts as a radar that detects magic within it's range," He gestures with his arms in a wide arc range,

"It can also be a good defense mechanism as well, s' not like a barrier where you can block off unwanted attacks, you can basically know how ta' dodge somethin' incoming towards ya', without the need to be relying on yer' peripherals." Sans shrugs at this,

"sides' it takes practice, so don't stress too much about it," Red finishes, "i'll teach ya' how to do it, once we get home. waddja' say?"

"Oooh I would love that, thank you!" You smile brightly at this, feeling very giddy to knowing more about magic.

Red stares at you for a minute, before looking away. You noticed a very light tint of red ligthing on his cheeks, but it could've easily mistaken for the reflections of the water from the sun.

"nways, i detected a thin trail leading towards that cliff over there," Sans points at it,

"m' on it," Red nods and as he did so, he completely disappears in front of you.

What--

"ey' yer right, 's a lot more comin' from here!" Red shouts from the otherside of the cliff.

_How did he--_

_Oh yeah, magic..._

"okay then, ya' gonna be okay with a little shortcut kiddo?" Sans offers his skeletal hand, and you took it without hesitation.

"yep, i'm ready,"

"s' a bit far though, so you might wanna hold on tight," You did as you're told and closed your eyes,

it felt different than the usual ones inside the house. As if you slipped on something, and you're just waiting to feel that impact when you fall. But it didn't come, instead you feel disoriented. Your center of gravity feels off. You end up grabbing Sans' shoulder for support.

"you okay there buddy?" Sans tries to steady you, finally regaining your bearings and opening your eyes.

"A bit...just a bit dizzy," You groan, leaning on to a tree trunk.

"sorry bout' that, 's a bit far, other than that i haven't been here before, so my magic wasn't that used to porting here," Sans says apologetically, "wanna rest for a while?"

"Nah, I'm good, let's keep going." You assure him, pushing yourself off the tree trunk.

"k' then, if you're sure. red! ya' found anythin'?" sans shouts out,

Looking around on where he's shouting you just noticed that red wasn't there, and was immediately surprised to see him pop out in front of you out of nowhere.

You squeel, and back up at the tree.

"heh, didn't mean to scare ya," Red chuckles at your reaction and turns to sans, "saw a big infrastructure up ahead, dunno if s' what you guys been looking for though. there's a steep slope that leads up there. s' better if we port,"

Oh no,

"s' gonna take a couple hops for me to reach, since i haven't seen it, better go with red on this one bud." Sans taps your shoulder,

"Ah, alright then." You nod, going to next to Red,

"sweet," Red grins widely at this,

"red, please no funny business, take care of 'er," Sans warns,

"sheesh yer' like my mother. relax, m' not gonna do nythin' bad to her," 

When all to suddenly Red hoisted you up, carrying you in a bridal style.

"R-Red?!" You sputter, turning as his name suggested. Trying not to fall by wrapping your arms around his neck.

"red what did i toldja---" Sans approaches trying to reach for you,

"see ya' at the topside," He winks at Sans,

And then you were covered in darkness, you grip onto Red for dear life. Feeling weightlessness for a second and then finally feeling that the both of you landed on solid ground.

You feel a tad bit dizzy and nauseous. 

...but it wasn't that bad.

"how ya' holdin' there sweetheart? you okay?" Red tries to soothe you, by moving his skeletal hand in a circular motion behind your back. It feels nice.

"Yeah," You try to close and open your eyes, trying to regain your bearings again, "...Yeah, I think I'm good now," 

"ya' think you can stand properly now? i don't mind carrying ya' like this all day though, heh..." 

You chuckle at that, "Nah, I'm good. Thanks Red," 

"anytime doll," He slowly positions you to stand, 

Suddenly sans pops out in front of you guys, with that flat grin on his face. "....was that really necessary red?" 

"what? the sweetheart liked it though. right?" Red turns to you and you blush adorably.

"Uhh...I don't mind?" You reply,

"see?" Red sneers,

"...whatever, let's go. ya' doin' okay bud? not feeling woozy or anythin'?" 

"I'm good so far Sans, thanks for asking." You look around and finally noticed the place,

"I think we're close, I kinda recognize this view when I fell down from this slope." You point out,

"you fell from here all the way down there?" Red asks, and you felt the both of them cringe. "that must've been one nasty fall,"

"The mud and tree roots slowed down my descend, so It wasn't that brutal." Walking up towards the institute and pushing the shrubs to the side along the way.

"jesus, that's still gotta hurt," Red winces, trailing behind you.

"Haha...yeah. But I feel much better now because of you guys...Ah! We're here!" You squeel in delight as you see one of the big stained glass windows.

You practically run towards it.

_Oh my gosh! You can't believe it! You're finally back!_

You try to take a peek inside and noticed that it was the hallway heading towards the girls' rooms.

It looks...oddly empty, you observe.

At this time of the day it would've been busy with the girls filing out of their rooms and heading towards the Great hall for breakfast.

But there was no one, not even the hall monitors.

It was dead silent.

"somethin' wrong?" Sans walks up next to you,

"It's just...oddly quiet. It's as if no one's in there." You reply, not quite processing it yourself.

"yep, can't hear 'nything, no movements or 'nything" Red peeks in as well,

"can't feel any magic around this area either," Sans voices out,

"There's another way we can go inside, it's this way," You told them and practically sprinted away,

"hey bud calm down," Sans tries to call out from behind you,

But you can't. You can't calm down.

The dead silence of the hallway was unnerving.

You need to check.

You need to be sure.

You need to know that they're okay.

You run faster.

You can hear Red and Sans calling from behind you, telling you to slow down.

But you just can't.

That unnerving feeling that something is not right is quickly settling down in your gut and is increasing by the second.

You close your eyes and pray.

You pray so hard that you wished that your family is still here.

That Aislinn is still here,

Please, let them be okay.

As you reach the backdoor heading towards the kitchen, you immediately twist the door knob. Finding it weirdly open.

You remember the night you and Ash tried to use it as a means to escape, finding out that it was closed shut and barely even budging.

You decided that maybe they must've undid the locks since it's been over a week now.

Opening the door fully you hear a faint snapping of a string,

You hear Red from afar, practically yelling at you but you can't quite comprehend what he was trying to say.

As if on timing, the whole ground starts to shake as you hear multiple explosions coming from inside the institute.

_What?_

And all to suddenly you feel the raging heat barreling towards you.

You practically see it, eyes wide, you feel paralyzed. Locked in place as fire shoots out, coming from the hallways and into the kitchen.

Sans suddenly pops in front of you as your surrounding explodes, and everything becomes bright.

You close your eyes and cover your face with your arms, bracing for the impact, but it never came and all you can hear is the faint ringing in your ears and the sickening crunch of bones.


	7. Stupefaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Explosions go boom! 
> 
> Hope everyone's doing okay! Please stay safe and always wear a mask! Follow proper social distancing! Be healthy!

You open your eyes and your vision blurs until it focuses on the blue hooded skeleton in front of you.

"SANS!!" You scream aloud, ignoring the searing pain on the top of your head and the blisters on the side of your arms.

He was standing very still, when all of a sudden he falls onto one knee.

That's when you notice the huge wall of bones right in front of him. Mixed with an assortment of whites and reds, and smacked at the middle of it was a huge hole.

_What..._

You focus on sans who was gripping on his chest and panting very heavily.

It was evident that he got hurt. Regardless of the massive wall of bones in front of the both of you, it wasn't enough to withstand the explosion.

"Sans, l'm sorry..." You were crying, guilt was evident on your wobbly voice.

This was your fault. If you were just careful and observant on your surroundings, regardless of how familiar you are with the place, you should've picked up the signs that something might happen.

It was because of your rash behavior that someone got hurt.

"shhh...s' okay...i'm okay, 'r ya' ok?" A skeletal hand reaches for your cheek and tries to wipe away your tears. "that cut on your forehead looks horrible..."

_What is he talking about? He looks worse..._

His shirt was singed. Showing bits of charred ribs...and blood...?

Oh god...

"Sans! Lemme help, I can--"

"what were ya thinkin' you sonuvabitch." Red stomps forward, dust and debris flying everywhere, he stops and glares at Sans.

He was pretty banged up as well, but not that much.

"well hello to you too red..." Sans coughs out,

"holy shit, that was instense..." Red looks around and finally lands his eyelights on you, " you ok?"

"Y-Yes I am, if it wasn't for Sans--"

"you probably would've been dead." He finishes this as a matter-of-fact.

You were stunned at his somewhat cold reply.

"what the fuck were ya' thinkin?! running off like that and _almost_ killin' him," Pointing at Sans,

You physically flinch at his harsh tone,

"I-I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to....I thought--"

"well ya' thought stupidly, that's what ya' did," Red sneers at you,

You look down at your hands, feeling ashamed.

"red cut the crap, ya' don't gotta be too harsh on 'er..." Sans speaks up and tries to stand up,

"tch! ya don't get a say to this, if you die ya' know what will happen and the consequences of it," Red huffs out, clearly irritated.

"i'll just be more careful next time," Sans tries to shrug but his attempts only made him wince.

"Sans..." You stood close to him and took hold of his hand.

He was startled at the gesture,

"Let me help you, please." You plead,

"pfft, as if ya' can he heal him right away," Red rolls his eyelights, "even without checkin' his stats i know how much damage he has dealt, same goes for you. we have to go back to the house and let tori hea--what are you doin?" He stops when you took hold of his hand,

"Like I said, I'm here to help, and you're hurt too," You reply, "You'll feel a light tingling effect on your ski--uhh...bones, but please bear with it,"

"..." Red just stares you

"bud you don't have to do this we can go back, healing's gonna drain you too much...." Sans responds,

"I got this, so don't worry," You take a deep breathe and exhale.

You've done this before...not too long ago.

You were probably 12 at that time, a group of your playmates were playing in the abandoned hallways.

Playing a fun game of tag, and you were "it".

You were chasing them when you knocked over a supporting beam which made the whole ceiling came crumbling down towards your lot.

Everyone was caught under the rubble and debris.

You got out with minor injuries, but all of them were knocked out unconcious.

So much blood were pooling all around them...

You shake your head,

_Don't think about that, think about the thing you did back then,_

You try to recall on what you did that day.

It will be much more easier now, especially with a large amount of magic you have.

You grip their hands firmly in yours and concentrate on that warm feeling within your chest.

_Breathe in and out,_

_In and out,_

_In and out,_

_In and..._

A flash of green washes over your vision, overflowing energy releases from your chest, spreading all over you.

You sigh, and try to concentrate by pushing the energy towards them, like opening a tap,

"what the fuck?!"  
"holy shit---"

They both curse at the rush of the suddenness of magic they felt coursing through their bones. Making them glow in a bright green hue.

Dislocated bones were realigned, cracked bones were mended and the remaining dust and blood were gone.

As if they were never injured in the first place.

And it all happened so fast, in just a blink of an eye.

They slowly look at you, stun in their place. You just give out a sigh of relief and quickly let go of their hands in yours.

"Whew...so how do you guys feel?" You ask, trying to shake off that tingling and numbing sensation on your hands.

"what--how--" Sans sputters, flexing his phalanges and checking his ribs through his ruined shirt.

"okay, what the fuck was that? how come..how come it healed us so goddamn fast?" Red turns to ask you,

"Oh...was it not suppose to be like that? I thought when you guys mentioned healing I thought that the both of you were used to it," You tilt your head to side,

"it wasn't suppose to be that quick...it usually takes sessions to heal someone. especially with the injuries i got a while ago, as to not let the healer get drained too much as well," Sans answers slowly, still in awe.

Ohh...

"Is it a bad thing? I'm sorry, but this is the only way I know how," you look down, pulling onto your jacket.

"ah no, it's actually a good thing. we were just surprised. you okay?" Sans tries to reassure you,

"Oh...I see, just feeling a bit lightheaded, but it's manageable," You try to feel the injury you got on your head, which is thankfully not there anymore.

"well at least yer' good for somethin'" Red rolls his eyelights, still clearly annoyed.

You turn to face the both of them,

"Listen, I'm really sorry for what I did back there. It was...pretty foolish and reckless of me to do what I did, endagering the both of you...I _never_ wanted that." You state the last sentence firmly,

"It's just that...I had this gut feeling that something might have happened to my family, so I had to find out as soon as possible, and literally rushed into it. But I should have thought it through and talked with you guys about it, and for that I'm really, really sorry. You've done so much to help me and I appreciate that wholeheartedly...but," You look down and flex your hands, the numbing and tingling sensation hasn't quite disappear just yet. Leaving you jittery.

"But I think the both of you have done enough...more than enough. I'm truly greatful for that, and I think it's best for everyone if we part our ways here," You finally finish, you'll miss them sure, they've been nothing but helpful towards you through and through. Risking their lives though, isn't something you would want for any of them.

They were both shocked at what you had said, taking them a while to process it.

When Sans finally speaks up,

"hey kid, i know what happened back there wasn't the ideal scenario, and we know that...but seeing this place and what happened to it, we can't just ignore it."

"sans, what are you doing?..." Red hisses out, and pulls him to the side,

"this is not us, when have we ever done somethin' like this?" Red scolds him with a harsh whisper,

"...red, listen...something big is going on here and we can't ignore it. remember, the government here announced that there were no known mages, ever. besides frisk..." Sans says carefully, looking back towards you. Checking if you were listening, thankfully you're not.

"tch! have it your way then. sides s' not my place ta' say 'nything anyways," Red quietly replies and turns to look at you,

You were politely looking away, giving them enough privacy. Red couldn't help but notice that you had that sad look on your face when you scan the damages around you.

Red figured you would have been eager to know what had happened, given the circumstances on how you escaped from here. It was understandable on how you reacted, but he couldn't help himself and be mad.

Mad at almost killing Sans, which is one of the only monsters that can bring him and his brother back to their world. But mad at how you rushed into it without common sense on checking if the premise is safe first, which is one of the first basic rules from where he's from. You can never be too sure on your surroundings.

The magic was tangible in the air the moment they approach the back door. He had screamed at you to stop.

And _you_ ignored it.

Your mind was clouded with one objective, and it's knowing if the people you love were still there.

Alive.

He knows that feeling all too well.

But if you're going to stick around, he might as well get over with being stubborn and accept your apology.

The moment when he was about to approach you, Sans came up besides you, probably telling you that they will still continue to help no matter what the circumstances.

Which he doesn't quite understand in the slightest.

Helping a complate stranger.

That concept is still a bit foreign to him. He tried to be nonchalant about it, seeing as this is an easy task, and he had nothing better to do. But if explosions and the sort are involve it's better to stay clear of it. Especially if the priority at hand is fixing the goddamn machine to take all of them back.

The surface is nice and all, but nothing's better than being in their home territory.

Your talk must've been done because the next thing he knows is that you're hugging Sans, who is turning blue all over.

Red rolls his eyelights, " _the fucker s' sure lovin' the attention_ " He thought,

What he doesn't expect is for you to come running towards him and suddenly hug him as well,

"w-what?" He sputters, clearly surprised.

"Thank you Red, thank you so very much," your hug was firm, in contrast to the softness of your wholebeing.

.....

He doesn't get this thing that he's feeling right now...

Seeing Sans winking behind him, he gives out an exasperated sigh.

"jeez, just be careful next time. if we toldja' to stop. you stop. got it?" Red gumbles, petting your head hesitantly.

He's getting soft.

You nod and smile brightly at this,

Your goddamn smile was so damn bright, he flinched and turn bright red himself.

Ugh....

This must be her heat that's affecting him. He's not suppose to act or feel like this.

The moment he starts to give in to it, you let go, and the feeling of your softness and warmth was suddenly missed.

...

He coughs and tries to shake off the redness on his skull.

"so what are we gonna do next?" He asks,

"i think it's best if we check the whole vicinity since we're already here...see if there're others who need our help" Sans voices out.

Your eyes widen at this. You haven't thought of that, you immediately assumed that the whole institute has been abandoned.

Feeling dread that the others might be still here, and then suddenly triggering the explosion....Oh god!

You begin to shake, "Oh god....we need to look around...we need--"

Warm skeletal hands holds your shoulders firmly in place.

"shh...take a deep breathe," It was Sans,

You do as you're told, and try your best to calm down.

"Should we split up?" You suggest,

"it's too risky," He says letting go and looking around the debris, "also, that wasn't just any ordinary explosion, it was fire magic. which can be quite a punch based on the intent of the user." Picking up a charred piece and observing it.

"and based from what we felt earlier, they have a lot of intent to kill anyone who snooped around the area," Red finishes, throwing an item he picked up back into the debris.

"yeah," Sans answers, "like what he says, it'd be wiser to stick together."

"now, where do the kids usually hide if there are cases of earthquakes and the sort? kinda like a bunker," Red asks turning towards you,

"Oh, there're actually two of those. One in the North wing near the classrooms and one inside the grand hall which is actually near here."

"kay, lead the way...but stop when we tell ya' to. capiche'?" He huffs,

"Alright, I will." You nod, and walk towards the arch that once hold the door between the kitchen and the hallway.

It was eerily quiet,

You scan the area around you. The halls where you and the girls used to play tag and race going to the dinning hall, were nothing more but cracked cement and rubble now.

_Why did this happened? Who did this? Why would they do this?_

A series of questions gushes through your head. But you put them aside for now. You need to concentrate and look for anyone who was still in here.

You finally reached the dinning hall and were surprised to find spoiled food and dinnerware littered all around.

Tables were flipped over, windows were broken, the support beams and old wooden chandeliers had fallen. Must've been due to the explosion.

But before that, it looks like lunch or dinner was being served, based on the amount of food scattered all around.

"ugh...it stinks here," Red says from behind, fanning a hand over his nose.

"It looks like everyone was having a meal, before something...happened." You observe,

"sure looks like it. based on the mashed potato that's been stepped on by little footprints besides the door," Sans says, behind Red.

Looking around the place you try to locate the emergency door.

"Ah, it's over here." You call out to them, pointing at the door behind the wide long table at the front.

Sans slowly approaches the wooden slate. Placing a hand on top of it. You notice that he's concentrating really hard on something.

"hmm...seems safe," He concludes. Sliding the wooden door to the side, revealing a steal one behind it.

"so far so good," Red states, "better if i take the lead this time," He turns towards you,

You nod and he moves forward.

The dark metal stairway leading down the bunker gives off a creepy vibe. It felt weird to be going down here.

The last time you were in here was just last year, which was for the yearly earthquake drill, but during that time everyone was fooling around.

It was lively.

A complete opposite on the quiet and stillness right now. You can't imagine the young ones will be down here, they will be far too scared.

Unless something scarier would drive them to go in here.

You hope not.

Finally reaching down the long spiraling metal staircase you find another steal door with a single flickering light above it, casting a green murky glow around the area.

Red does what Sans did earlier, placing his phalanges on top of the door.

"hmm...looks like everything's clear. but it looks like no one's in there as well," Red sighs looking at you.

...

You give a small nod, "But it wouldn't be too much to take a peek inside, would it?" You ask,

"knock 'yerself out," Red replies, opening the door.  
  


As you walk inside, you notice that the lights were completly off, it was pitched black. You can hardly see anything in front of you.

Turning the switch on at the side seems to not work,

"here," Red grabs something from his pocket and flickers a lighter, casting a small warm glow around your area and handed it to you carefully.

"Thanks" You smile, "s'no problem" He shrugs,

"wait a minute..." Sans says from behind, staring at the end of the hallway.

"someone's over there," He whispers,

"What?" You gasp, _Who could it be?_  
  
  


"Hello? It's me!" You call out saying your name,  
  


No response...  
  


"I came back and bought friends along with me! They mean no harm!" You move closer,  
  


You notice Sans was taking a defensive position at your side, and so is Red.

As you inch closer you begin to notice a figure facing the wall, the lighter flickering at your hand making it hard to see who it was.

"Please, they're here to help," You step closer,  
  


Still no response,  
  
  


Red is tensing up, you can see at the side of your eyes that his eyelights were glowing brighter. You feel his phalanges brushing lightly at the back of your hand. Maybe planning to teleport in a last moment's notice? You thought.

You were a couple of feet away from the person in front of you.

...hold on, you recognize this person. The white wimple cascading down her shoulders, hunching down towards the wall, even if she was hunched over she is still quite tall and broad for her stature, easily distinguishable among all of the nuns in this institute.

"Sister Anette?" You say her name gently,

You feel Sans and Red eased up a bit as you finally recognize the person in front of you.  
  


She was frozen still, unmoving.  
  


"Sister Anette? It's me...I came back," You try again inching closer, stopping just a few inches behind her.

You wait for her to reply...

Still nothing,

"...something's not right," Red's gruff voice cuts the silence, as you inspect Sister Anette closely with the lighter,  
  


"Sister?..." You carefully touch her shoulder to shake her,

Touching her was like touching a plank of wood. The muscles underneath her clothes were solid....stiff.

And what really unerve you was...how cold she felt.  
  


It startles you, letting her go. The sudden movement unbalancing her, tipping her backwards.  
  
  
  


You were about to catch her but as soon as you look down you pale.

Suddenly everything slows down for a minute.

The lighter illuminating the scene in front of your eyes,

Staring right back at you without a doubt is Sister Anette...

But she looks...different, besides her brown hair peeking underneath her wimple, her pale complexion...

...her skin was shriveled up like a raisin, her eyesockets are hollowed and empty, and she has that frozen expression as if she's constantly screaming.

In fact, you can probably hear her right now....

A high pitch shrill echoes inside the bunker, until you realize that it was you who was making that noise.

It took you a while to finally come into your senses as you continue to scream, letting go of the lighter. 

You scream so loud and try to push yourself away from Sister Anette, the stern but kind Sister Anette...

Which is nothing more than a lifeless corpse, staring blankly at the ceiling.

You couldn't even fanthom on what had happened, or how it happened.

You wrap your arms around yourself as you begin to sob.

Red and Sans were standing shock-still, staring at how everything was unfolding in front of them.

It doesn't make sense, it's as if the corpse has been here for more than a couple of years now.

And it was so well preserved...

Unless...

Sans slowly turns to look at Red, while Red stares back and nods.

Sans walks over to your side, picking up the lighter, ligthening it up as he crouches down at your sobbing form, rubbing small circles behind your back with his other hand and trying to comfort you,

"I-it...d-doesn't make sense, I just...hic...I just saw her a day before me...and A-Ash left, " You try to say between sobs and hiccups.

_that explains it_ , Sans thought.

"sans, yer' right..." Red says, Sans casts a light in his direction as he spoke.

"...i can feel small amounts of residual magic in it," Red's browbones scrunches down,

"What?...M-Magic did this? W-wha-- H-How ...I-I don't understand...How can magic do something like this?" You ask looking between Sans and Red,

"...i don't think i'm the right person to answer that question," Sans sighs, mirroring Red's look of concern,

"but i know one particular mage who does, and we're meetin' them tomorrow,"  
  
  



	8. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heyo guys! Hope everyone's okay! Been really busy with work so sorry for the delayed chapter! Thank you for sticking with it XD

The feeling of bile keeps rising up to your throat, while the image of the grotesque look of Sister Anette kept repeating at the back of your head. Not only that but the fear on what may have happened to your family, to Aislinn. Anxiety slowly gnaws its way under your skin. It felt vile, it makes you want to throw up.

After releasing your pent up magic in the crops this morning, you decided to lay down. You spent way too much magic than necessary. Which drained out most of your energy. Making you sick. Ending you in bed.

Which sucks.

Now these thoughts keeps on running into your head.

Not being able to do anything, and just wait, is the worst feeling of all.

You want to help them, reach out to them, but you can't do anything. You don't have the means to do anything.

All you can do is sit and wait...  
  


You lean your head to the empty trashbin besides your bed. Nothing comes out.

Laying back on the bed, sweat covering your forehead, you take a long deep sigh. You were graciously back at the skeleton monsters' warm household. Why on earth did they made you come back with them after seeing the harrowing circumstances you were in, you don't know. But you think it's because they're just really good people, regardless on what their appearance may be. You scolded yourself for even thinking that.

You turn to the side, eyeing the bowl of mushroom soup and corn bread at your bedside table, which was now probably cold. 

...

You feel guilty not eating them right away, but you weren't really in the mood to eat anything as of this moment. Even though Papyrus has insisted.

Looking outside you could see the sun bright and up. Probably mid-afternoon, you thought.

You need to get up, and get ready. Sans mentioned earlier that a mage they know was coming over with their mom.

Better get up then.

It's weird though, you're supposed to be excited in meeting another person who has the same ability as you do...kinda, sans did mention that their magic was different from yours, but given the things that happened earlier it kinda dulls it out a bit.

You sigh, and try your best to get ready. 

After showering you opt for a short-sleeved baby blue summer dress with small flower patterns scattered all around, pairing the whole thing with your old red sneakers. Going to the mirror you tie your hair up in a ponytail.

So far so good,

You almost trip when your foot snag on something.  
You look down at the culprit, you forgot you placed the dufflebag besides the mirror. The same dufflebag that Ash used to push you off of the cliff. Red found it while checking the area one last time before heading back.

You're thankful that at least you now have clean clothes, but looking back at the dufflebag it reminds you of your failed attempt in saving Ash.

And then your thought rewinds again to that scene of Sister Anette...

Shit,

Stop.

Don't think about it, stay calm.

Stay calm, 

You begin to sweat and hyperventilate, your thoughts running a million miles per second.

Breathe in,  
  


Breathe Out,  
  


Breathe in,  
  


Breathe Out,  
  


....  
  


Okay, calm down..  
  
  
  


"knock, knock" A deep baritone voice echoes from the other side of the door.  
  


"Who's there?" You call out, walking towards the door.  
  


"candice," 

"Candice who?" You grin, placing your hand on the door.  
  


"candice door open? or are you stuck in there?" A low snicker,  
  


"Of course," You roll your eyes and open the door, and lo and behold, it's Sans.  
  
  


"Hey Sans," 

"you ready? they'll be coming any minute now," 

"Yeah," You try to flatten out your dress,

"...hey, how are you feeling? ya' wanna postpone this? you know we can right?" Sans slowly touches your shoulder, 

"Thanks Sans, but it's fine," you place your hand on top of his, and give him a firm squeeze. Still getting used to that smooth bone texture.

"k' then, if you're sure." He nods and lets you go, leading the way towards the living room, "you look good by the way, blue's a nice color on ya'," 

"Thank you, glad you like it. Too bad it's a bit wrinkly," You try to smooth it down again,

"s' fine, don't gotta fuss about it, it looks pretty since yer' wearin' it." Wink

"Oh my goodness, Sans please." you chuckle, getting caught off guard from the flirty remark.

"gotcha' ta smile though," He winks again,

Aaaaw...that's sweet of him,

You finally reach the living room, which was weirdly empty, besides Red lounging on the sofa watching TV.

"hey sugar, how've you been holdin' on?" Red asks, scooching at the side to give you room,

"I'm....just a bit tired," You give out a sigh,

"s'ok, if ya' need to relax and all that, take yer time" he pats your leg,

"Thanks Red, but I'm good," you smile at him, regardless of what had happened back in the institute they're really understanding and patient. Trying not too pry about it too much. Which you appreciate wholeheartidly.

"Where are the others?" You ask,

"paps s' in the kitchen, preparin' snacks. stretch s' at work, blue n' my bro are at the nearby town, grocery shoppin'," Red responds while switching channels in the TV.

Oh,

You stand up and attempt to go to the kitchen to help Papyrus,

"dun' worry about it kiddo, sit tight. my bro's gonna be out any moment," Sans calls you out and pats the seat right next to him,

Oh...okay then,

You nod and as soon as you sit down you hear the sound of a car's engine outside coming to a halt.

"they're here," Sans gets up from the sofa and goes to the door,  
  


Knock, knock.

"who's there?" Sans calls out,

"Scold," a female voice replies,

Sans snickers, "scold who?,"

"Scold outside, let us in." You can clearly hear the female at the other side was holding back her giggle,

Until she can't anymore and just full on laughs. Such a warm and sweet laugh, it sounds nice.

You can't help but give out a small grin at it,

"k'" Sans chuckles and opens the door, "s' good to see ya' tori,"

"It's so good to see you again my dear friend," The female voice replies, finally coming into view.

Sans did mention that the mage's mom was a monster, but what he didn't mentioned is what type of monster. So you assumed that this might be another skeleton.

No, it's not...it's a big white goat lady monster. She's so tall, maybe 7 feet or more, taller than Papyrus. She's wearing a simple purple dress with a very big tote bag slinged across her shoulder.

She's big, but she has this lovely poised lady-like air around her, almost as if she's regal.

Well then, now you feel kinda nervous all of a sudden.

Her big round goat eyes landed on you, and her smile got bigger.

"Hello my dear, you must be the lovely mage that everyone is talking about," She says this while walking towards you, sticking out her fluffy paw. "My name is Toriel, it is so nice to finally meet you."

You shake her paw, which engulfs your entire hand, it's warm and fluffy though, so you don't mind. It feels nice.

"Likewise," You smile,

"Frisk...my child, come quick and introduce yourself," She calls out to the door,

"Coming mom!" Someone calls out from the door,

You couldn't tell if they're a boy or a girl based from their voice. Getting curious you peak behind Toriel.

"Since we...I mean me, will be staying over for quite a while I've come prepared with the right amount of stacked board games!" They call out, carrying a seizable tower of board games which covers them entirely out of view.

"Mind helping me out here Sans?"

"My child, what have we talked about? I told you to bring only 2." Toriel sighs,

Sans blue magic glows around the board games and it carefully floats towards the coffee table. 

You are finally able to look at them,

You still couldn't tell if they're a boy or a girl. They have brown messy shoulder length hair, slanted eyes, and a rich tanned skin with a few freckles covering their face. 

They're quite a looker, if you may say so yourself.

You wave at them hesitantly and they wink back,

"Ohoo, who would've thought you got this precious little gem in your household." They smirk and walk towards you.

"Hey gorgeous, the name's Frisk," They hold out their hand, and you hold onto theirs ready to shake it but they suddenly turn it over and kiss it instead.

Oh my goodness,

You turn beet red.

"Frisk, what have we talked about?" Toriel chides them,

"Yes, mom," They respond, letting go of your hand, "I'll keep my flirting skills into a minimum," They wink again,

You chuckle. Well then, aren't they quite a character.

They slump into the sofa while Toriel and Sans converse, "Heyo Red! What's shaking my dude?"

"oh ya' know, not much, same old same old," He replies deadpan,

"Still being edgey I see," Frisk merely grins,

You sit down at the other side of Red, watching them interact.

Red seems uncomfortable though. You notice that he's quite rigid, sweat was pooling at the top of his skull.

"...Red?" You tap him on the shoulder, "You okay?,"

"never better,"Red replies gruffly,

"Sooooo," Frisk cuts in and calls out your name,

"I hear you can do...magic, is that right?" They say this while doing jazz hands,

"Uh, I guess....I do." You reply carefully, still getting used to saying that out in the open,

"What kind of magic?" They lean closer, ignoring Red's discomfort being in the middle.

You keep on glancing at Red, who was staring straight at the television ignoring the both of you.

"Uhh...why not I show you instead? It's a bit hard to explain," You smile awkwardly and stand up,

"Oh goody, sure thing!" They jump off the sofa and started to follow you,

You look at Red and see him visibly relaxing,

You wondered on why he so tensed up when frisk was too close, you decided not to pry too much about it. But you're relieve in a way to see him finally relaxed.

You meekly wave at Sans signaling him where the both of you were going, he just gives you a thumbs up before getting back into his conversation with Toriel.

Going through the kitchen you've been hit by a strong aroma of freshly baked cookies.

"Hey Papyrus! It smells heavenly here," Frisk walks towards the tall skeleton which was wearing a large red apron with embroided with white words reading "The Greatest Chef".

"FRISK! I WASN'T EXPECTING YOU TO ARRIVE SO EARLY, I'M ALMOST DONE WITH THIS BATCH JUST GIVE ME A COUPLE OF MINUTES!" Papyrus declares, posing with finesse while holding a cookie tray.

"Alrighty! Can't wait. We're just going out at the back, going to do magic and stuff," Frisk beams,

"OKIE DOKIE, DON'T TIRE YOURSELF TOO MUCH," He smiles "AND ESPECIALLY YOU, YOU'RE STILL IN HEAT,"

Frisk slowly turns to your direction raising a thick eyebrow, "You're in heat? How?"  
  


"Uhhh...I was hoping that you'll have an answer to that one," You reply honestly,

Frisk squints their eyes towards you, which makes it look like that they have it closed.

"Hmm...interesting," They speak up, taking your hand and leading you at the back door,  
  


You hear Papryus say "HAVE FUN" before the screen door closes.  
  


Frisk abruptly stops in front of you the moment the both of you got out,

"Holy shit, you did all of this?" They were staring at the large garden outside by the porch,

"Uhhh...yeah, since I'm...uh...in heat as Papyrus mentioned, I get to have an excessive amount of energy--- uhh I mean magic to spare. But I can't usually do something like this on a normal day, I can make something sprout out but not to this extent." You reply truthfully, gauging at their reaction. Still a bit nervous on saying this out so freely.

"Oh wow, impressive. Can you show me?" They smile wide,

"Oh, sure. Let me get some seeds st the garden shed real quick." You jog to the shed and gather a few poppy seeds in your hands.

You came back seeing frisk checking out the crops.

"Wow...even these? Amazing," They say the moment you stopped before them.

"Oh, thank you. Like I said I can only grow so much during these times. Oh, here..." You guide them to an empty plot of land.

Kneeling down and taking a single seed, you poke a small hole onto the dirt and drop it there. Patting the soil down to cover it.

"You ready?" You look at them, sparkle in your eyes. Placing your hands down the soil.

Frisk could tell you were just about excited as they were,

They chuckle at your enthusiasm. "Yup, fire away,"

You take a deep breathe and push that warm energy from your chest down to your fingertips.

You hear Frisk give out a small gasp as you feel the soil give out a small shake.

Suddenly a small seedling popped out off of the soil, and it keeps going. Growing and growing, growing into a long thin stem. A bud appears at the tip of it and finally you can see the bud ever so slowly open into a beautifully lovely shade of red poppy.

You smile wide at this, as do Frisk. They were completely mesmerize by it.

You stop and give out a sigh, dusting your hands off from the accumulated dirt underneath it.

"Wow, amazing..." They say, awestruck. Touching the delicate flower with the tip of their fingers.

They look at you and you saw that their eyes were wide open.

Taken aback you rub your eyes, just to confirm.

And yep they were red.

Their irises were red.You tried to rationalize that maybe it was just the pigment of the flower reflecting it on theirs. But...no, it's not. They're bright ruby red.

"Curious, I wonder if you could do that to humans. Make them big, taller, or stronger." They say, with small child-like chuckle in their voice.

"Oh, I can't. I've tried to do it with my sister, back in the institute. I "tried" to make her stronger so she can move the furniture in our room. But all it gave her was the feeling of warmth...it's what she says." You chuckle at the memory, "I think I can only heal humans...oh, and monsters as well, back when Sans and Red accompanied me in the institute." You explain,

"Hmm...such potential though. To be honest I never thought I would see another mage myself, but alas, here you are." They say, with a higher lilt on their voice.

"Same here, it's relieving in a way to finally say it out in the open with someone, I've always kept it a secret from everyone else besides my sister."

They nod and resume examining the flower.

You step closer, feeling a bit bashful, but you were curious for their turn. You cough, trying to gain back their attention.

"If it's not to much of a bother to ask what your magic is like, maybe you could give out a demonstration as well?" You voice out, curiosity getting the better of you.

They smile so wide at this, which was supposed to be charming in a way, but you can't help but feel uneasy from it. You feel goosebumps all over your skin.  
  


Strange.  
  


You try to shake it off, anticipating on what they will do next.

"Alrighty," They stand up, and begin to count backwards,

"3..."

"...2..."

"...1..."

They suddenly grab a hold of your wrist, and a feeling of intense dejä vu washes over you.

You flinch and try to shake off their hand, but they hold on to you in a vice-like grip.

"Red's going to come out first, followed by Sans and mom," They quietly whisper, 

And sure enough someone bursts through the screen door.

It was Red.

He has that panicked look painted across his face. Red droplets of sweat beaded on the top of his skull. Sans was right behind him followed by Toriel.

"What? What is it?" You ask surprised,  
  


"Honestly Sans, was there really anything to worry about?" Toriel muttered,

"...heh, just makin' sure everything's okay." Sans replies with a chuckle, but there was an undertone of nervousness behind it "...ain't that right kid?"

"Everything's fine," Frisk calls out, their eyes slanted, smiling towards the group in front of you.

" _Reset_ assured Sans, I'm _determined_ nothing happened." They playfully add,

You think they just made a joke, but you didn't quite get it.

"heh, kay' kid." Sans replies,

You look over at Red and notice that he still looks on edge. Glaring heavily on Frisk.

Did you just miss something? What happened?

Was it because Frisk happened to dictate the future? Stating the order in which everyone came out?

Did Sans and Red happen to feel or see it?

Are the monsters the only ones who can notice it?

How come Toriel seems surprised then? 

Strange, it just feels really strange. But hey, it's magic so nothing's normal.

You look at Frisk, still holding your wrist. Not so tightly now though, but still there. 

When Sans and Toriel finally went back in, Red decides to stick to the patio. Silently looking back at the both of you.  
  


"...So, you can see the future?" You ask, clearly amaze by it,

They giggle, "Something like that, I'll tell you more about it while we're eating snacks. Papyrus will be calling out any second now."

And right on cue,

"THE COOKIES ARE READY! COME AND GET IT!" Papyrus' voice booms from the kitchen,

"Also, just be extra cautious when going up these steps, you might trip and injure your head," They say this while bumping the side of your forehead with their knuckles lightly,

You chuckle and nod, following them up. While Red was still looking suspiciously at them, trailing behind the both of you.

\-----

Red was seated right across the both of you from the kitchen counter, staring intensely at Frisk.

Frisk ignores him completely, minding their own business by chomping on a cookie and finishing on a glass of milk. Making this their 3rd glass and 6th piece of cookie.

Well, they must've been famished or they just really like chocolate chip cookies.

"These are really good Papyrus," You commented, nibbling on yours.

"WHY THANK YOU! I'M GLAD YOU LIKE IT! I DO TEND TO ADD MORE CHOCOLATE CHIPS THAN USUAL, A SPECIAL TREAT FOR FRISK HERE!" Papyrus pats Frisk head lovingly,

Frisk just hums in reponse to this, still munching on a cookie.

"So..." You start, bringing yo

"So," Frisk replies eating the last piece of cookie and chugging down the remaining milk from their glass.

Taking a napkin, they carefully wipe their face from all of the evidence of crumbs and milk.

"So," They repeat, "Just a quick question before I go about the thing I just did back in the yard."

You nod, waiting for them to continue.

"What do you know about souls? Particularly, human souls." They straighten their posture, looking straight at you with their slanted eyes.

"Uhh...I can't actually specify it exclusively for humans though. For my belief, everyone has one. All of the living life form in this world has a soul. It's the very essence of that person or that living being. If we pass on, our souls either goes to heaven or hell, or even get reincarnated. Whichever that person or that living being believes in." You answer, it was completely based from what you were taught from the institute.

You noticed Red leans over to the counter top, looking intrigued. 

"HUH, NEVER THOUGHT HUMANS HAVE THAT KIND OF UNDERSTANDING ON WHAT A SOUL IS." Papyrus voices out as he scratches his chin thoughtfully.

"Oh, is it different from the beliefs of monsters?" You ask,

"It's actually got nothing to do with beliefs or religion," Frisk says carefully, "Souls are indeed very much real. They physically exist. Well, not right now but they're inside of the physical matter that you have on right now." They point towards your chest,

"Also, the categories for Humans and Monsters souls are quite different,"

"You see, for humans, our soul has 7 main traits. A person can either have: determination, kindness, justice, perseverance, patience, bravery, and integrity." They explain this by lining up the cookies in front of you.

"But the thing is, humans, we tend to evolve. We adapt. You can't have patience solely you have to have bravery as well. So, over time, the concentrated soul trait of a human dillutes." Frisk grabs a cookie crumb and plops it into your glass of milk, disintegrating it completely.

"Humans who have pure soul traits, just like you and me tends to harness power from it. The purer it is, the better the outcome."  
  
  


"Over time though the soul trait of a human mage dillutes, especially if their magic is not frequently used. Back in the dark ages, you can't imagine how hard it was...especially during the witch hunt era," Frisk picks up a cookie crumb and plops it into your glass of milk, disintegrating it completely.

  
"After some time most of the mage's soul trait becomes so diluted, that 99.9% of mages as of today doesn't actually have a pure concentrated soul anymore," They shrug at this,

  
"Which resulted to not able to use or produce magic, unlike before. But to those remaining 0.01% that still has a larger portion of a specified soul trait in them and has managed to conceive a child with another mage with a similar condition and trait, can have an outcome of an accumulated soul trait gene over time." Frisk says this while clasping their hands together,

"It's basically like adding up all of the accumulated specks of the same soul traits from your ancestors and thus having an end result of a concentrated soul trait which turns into a pure soul trait for the latest mage generation, which is you and me." They state this as a matter of fact,

  
"In conclusion, the final end result which has the purest soul trait is able to use magic." Frisk demonstrates this by pouring your untouched glass of milk into their empty glass and drinking it vigorously.

  
"Well, that was a mouthful. So, any questions?" They tilt their head towards your direction.

"Uhh..." Well wasn't that informative, but you kinda got the gist of it. You never thought it all boiled down to that. But you're curious...

"How did you manage to know all of this? Is this public knowledge?" You ask,

  
They chuckle and lean forward, gesturing for a mock whisper.

"No, it's not. It's a tippy top secret from the government." They grin at this, "They've been conducting...experiments on certain people, including myself."

  
Your eyes widen at this. You remembered Ash vividly telling you something similar.

  
You were really hoping that it wasn't true.

  
Frisk notices your distress,

  
"But it wasn't that bad," They added quickly, "It's not like they tore me apart or something. It's like a physical examination, they just ran a few test here and there and compare it with other humans." 

  
Oh. 

  
You feel relieve to hear that.

  
"But how come it's kept a secret?" 

  
"It's coz' I'm the only known human mage that they currently know. They're trying to find more of our kind," They smirk,

"Will we be telling them? Uhhh...I mean the government? About me?" You try to sound calm, but it wasn't anything near like that. You're really nervous. You wonder what will happen.

  
Papyrus looks uneasy and so does Red,

  
"No, we won't my dear. At least, not yet." A gentle voice enters the room,

  
Toriel walk towards Frisk's side. Pulling out a napkin, she wipes away the crumbs and milk moustache off of their face.

  
"Mom..." Frisk whines.

Toriel just chuckles at this and pockets the napkin. Turning to you her face took on a serious expression.

  
"I believe Frisk here has already gave you a run down on our current knowledge for Mages. How do you find it?" She asks, placing herself into one of the seats near Frisk.

  
You notice Red and Papyrus properly adjusted theirselves in their seats, sitting straighter.

  
"It was an eye opener. I wasn't aware about any of this since I thought I was the only one. Learning the origins of my magic was amazing to hear." You answer truthfully,

  
"I see..." Toriel carefully places her paws on the table,

"My dear," She mentions your name and releases a quiet sigh, "You see, I am having a dillemma, one that I need to address as quickly as possible."

  
Her warm yellow eyes staring straight at yours was overwhelming. The feeling as if you've been caught doing something bad, and you're about to get a lecture for it.

  
"To be completely honest, I do not trust you." She says this while her stern eyes boring into yours. You were shocked, frowning at her confession,

"I'm sorry, have I done something wrong?" You ask,

"It is not something that you have done. But it is something that I do not know. I simply do not know you." She stated,

"What do you want to know about me?"

"Everything. Where you are from, your intentions, your plans." She replies, "Most importantly are you a danger to me, my friends, or to the whole monsterkind." 

  
What?

"Me a danger? How?" You ask incredulous.

  
What is she talking about?

  
You turn to look at Frisk, Red and Papyrus.

  
They were all silent and was purposefully avoiding eye contact.

...

It is fair, you're still a stranger to them after all. But it does stings having no one to vouche for you. You thought you were becoming close to others in the household.

"Like I mention, I do not know you. Also, it is quite hard to sound convincing since you are in heat. Your heat affects the judgement of monsters around you, particularly to those without a partner or has not yet conceived." She frowns at this,

Your heat? Is that the reason everyone was so nice to you? Was it because of that?...you feel uneasy and bit sick learning that.

"I promise you, I'm not a threat." Your voice comes out wobbly, you're close to pleading right in front of her, "How can I convince you or everyone else that I'm not? That I-I can be trusted?" You look up at her,

  
"I'm glad you ask my dear. You see, we have this particular method which we call an encounter. It will let your true self out in the open and your intentions clear once you've been checked." She smiles at this, maybe glad that you're willing to cooperate.

An Encounter?

  
"How does that work?" 

  
"We simply pull out your soul. No need to worry, it will not hurt." She assures you,

Still, it's a bit weird to think about it. Your soul being pulled out, which sounded wrong. Aren't souls supposed to stay inside your body?

But if it's for the best to gain their trust towards you. You have no other choice.

"Alright, what do I need to do?" 

Toriel smiles at this and stands up, coming over to your side.

  
"All you need to do is stand up and we can immediately proceed." She says, smiling gently.

  
You nod and stand up...

  
Darkness suddenly envelopes you whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Visit my social media sites below:
> 
> Instagram: www.instagram.com/kamiiireru/  
> Twitter: kamiiireru  
> Facebook: www.facebook.com/kamiiireru/


	9. Cover: Book Cover not a chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heads up

Hi guys! This isn't a new chapter just yet but I wanna show you guys the recent cover I made for this! Hope you guys like it! Might revise this in the near future though! So just a heads up! XD And if you guys wanna know more about my works head on over to my twitter or instagram: kamiiireru 

[](https://ibb.co/DW6VZNf)  
[geojson example](https://geojsonlint.com/)  



	10. Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You've been pulled into an encounter,

Blackness...

You're aware that you're wide awake. You're not dreamimg.  
  


Yet it feels like you are.  
  


Stricken with an intense feeling of Dëja vu, you try to look around.

You are floating in a vast black void of nothingness. While fear is slowly ebbing its way towards you.  
  


This feels all too familiar,

  
"My child," you hear Toriel's concern tone right in front of you,

Suddenly you weren't alone. A text seemingly appears to pop out just below you. It says:

_*You encounter Toriel_

A warm green light eminates around you. Covering your whole being.

You know for a fact that this light is somehow protecting you.

You try to look for the source, and you finally notice that it's coming from your chest.

Something else was glowing, you try to look down and see orange neon signs floating just below you:

FIGHT

ACT 

ITEM

MERCY

"What are these?" You point towards the mysterious rectangle signs.

...Your eyes widen in fear. It's as if you didn't hear your own voice,

"Where am I?" You try once again, but just like before your voice doesn't seem to come out.

Have you gone deaf all of sudden? But you were able to hear Toriel just a few seconds ago,

Other than that you noticed that her colors seems to be washed out.

Are your eyes playing tricks on you? You rub it and try to focus on her once more. Yep, still black and white. Yet if you look down you can see the bright neon orange of the floating signs and the bright green glow around you has color.

Okay, you're very confused.

"No need to worry my child, you are perfectly safe and fine." You hear Toriel voice out,

Good to know you're not deaf then. Then how come you can't hear your own voice?

"What's happening? Where are we?" You ask again, but your voice doesn't seem to work. Your whole face contorts in a worrysome expression, but you try your best to keep it together.

As if reading your expression Toriel continues her explanation,

"This my dear is what we call an "encounter". It's where us monsters confront another monster, or in this case a mage or human, and make settlements using the options below by taking turns." She smiles and points at the signs.

"Mostly, this is used as a means of defense or training," She says and you nod.

"The process is quite simple. When you "encounter" a monster you will enter a "FIGHT". When you enter a "FIGHT" you can either strike up a friendly conversation or choose any of the options below." She continues patiently, using a tone in which you normally hear on teachers or proctors.

"Go on, try and select one of the options."

You wondered how will you even try to do that, when all of a sudden you saw a green cartoonish shaped heart move towards the "ACT" option that you were just thinking about.

Is this kind of like Telepathy? You wonder.

You finalize your option as if clicking "ok" in your mind. Two more options seems to appear:

*CHECK

*TALK

You select "TALK" and try to test it out.

"What just happened? How come I wasn't able to talk up until now? How will this prove that you can trust me?" You ask, finally able to voice out your concern. Relief washes over you upon hearing your voice.

Toriel continues to smile,

"I'm glad you asked. You see, when you selected "ACT" it can be sub-categorized into two more options. One would be the one you selected which is "TALK" and the other is "CHECK".

"Choosing "TALK" lets you talk freely in your turn, in this case, ask questions. While choosing "CHECK" lets you check or observe what the other party is currently thinking or feeling towards you in this encounter. You may select that option next if you wish to test it out."

She says this patiently, and you feel relief upon hearing that. For a minute there you thought you just completely lost your voice, glad that wasn't the case.

What kind of magic is this...

You select "CHECK" this time,

A holographic boxed message appears in front of you. It reads:

Toriel

  
ATK 80

  
DEF 80

  
** HP 440 ** Bonus Stat Check

* Knows what's best for everyone

* Happy that you're cooperating

* Does not have any ill intent

Oh...

Oooooooh, so this is what they mean. It's literally checking them out. Kind of like in the video games. Well, now that you think about it the whole premise does seem to feel like one.

"How was it? What did you see?" She asks, waiting for your answer.

You select "TALK" and responded, "There's a bunch of numbers...and as if I know what's in your head, and I can feel...as if by instincts, that the words that popped out are real and true." Answering truthfully, it's way better than taking a lie detecting test.

"Good, glad to hear you know about it before I myself use it on you." She nods once as if asking for your permission,

"Please, go right ahead." You reply, giving your approval.

You can see now that it is quite invasive, you're glad that she had at least gave you prior knowledge before doing it on you.

You felt a small buzz on your body as if someone's looking intently towards you. The feeling of eyes looming just around the corner where you couldn't see.

It's a bit unsettling but you try to quell it.

"...I see," Toriel remarks, wearing a neutral expression.

What? Was there something wrong? What did she saw?

"Hmmm...my dear, would you mind if I drag a friend in here?" She asks,

Your eyes widen, and you select talk.

"Why? Is there something wrong?" You try to voice out your thoughts from earlier.

"No dear, it's perfectly...fine. I would just want to clarify this knowledge with someone who I can trust. I hope you would not mind."

"Uhh...ok..." You answered hesitantly,

Something moves from the side of your peripheral joining Toriel.  
  


_*Sans joins the encounter_  
  


You were surprised to see him here, his eyesockets were much more prominent and are staring eerily at you.

It makes you feel vulnerable for some weird reason. As if that feeling of what Toriel did earlier when she "CHECK"ed on you was milder.

...

You squirm a bit in your spot.

"sup' tor?" Sans' baritone voice vibrates throught the space around you. Its as if his voice could'nt get any lower.

"My friend, would you mind giving a quick check on our guest here and tell me what you think." She says,

"sure, no prob." He shrugs his shoulders nonchantly and turns to look at you.

You weren't expecting the sudden feel of uneasisness, throwing you completely off course.

It wasn't anything like what you experienced with Toriel earlier.

His void-like eyesockets containing his glowing eyelights pierces right through you, making your spine shiver.

It was so intimidating. It's as if you're being judged right now on the spot for the sins and actions you have committed.

It's as if he knows it all.

Uncovering your deepest darkest secrets and completly baring them out in the open.

You feel so vulnerable under his gaze.

Gone was the skeleton who was being laid back and chill just moments ago. 

Standing right in front you was a completely different entity. A different kind of...monster.

And as quickly as the feeling of uneasiness started, it vanished just like that. Relief washes over your whole being, you didn't even notice you were holding your breathe. You look at sans and saw that he was back to his normal laid-back self.

What was that, you thought.

"...interestin'. wouldn't be able to compare 'er stats with another green human soul. s' a bit rare nowadays, 'specially one that's this pure." Sans comments, his eyelights returning to its soft normal glow.

"I see, well then. I guess that's it." Toriel nods and looks at you. "My dear, this concludes our encounter. Please do choose "MERCY" and "SPARE" to end the encounter so we may go back with the others." She asks with a pleased tone.

That's it?

You were curious to check out Sans though, to see if he has the same thoughts with Toriel. But you decided that it was indeed invasive and just do as you were told.

What does the other options do though. If you were to think the whole thing as a video game setting then Fight would initiate to attack the other party and Item would be to use items during the encounter.

Toriel did mention that this was used as an act of training or defence, so maybe that's why there're those options here. It is weird to think that everyone is calmly discussing and all of a sudden you just chose attack.

You imaginary "clicked" on SPARE and your surrounding froze still, together with Toriel and Sans.

Suddenly you were surrounded by light and just as you blink you find yourself in the exact same spot where you were seated before the encounter. As if you never left.

_How long was I in there?_ You thought, rubbing your eyes, trying to adjust to the light.

"so what's the verdict?" Red speaks up, looking at Sans and Toriel.

"Well I am happy to say our guest here is quite reasonable and all the things she did say are indeed true." She smiles at this, and you can tell that the whole table seems to sigh in relief.

"Ah good to know she's not some sadistic assassin bent to destroy everyone," Frisk chuckles, but you can see Sans eyeing on Frisk quite intently.

"yeah, other than that our friend here seems to have a pretty good helping of stats," Sans grins at this and you catch their exchanges before Toriel decides to nod, as if giving him permission to continue.

"OOH DO TELL, THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A GOOD SPARRING PARTNER" Papyrus booms out, seeming excited. While you...not so much.

"kids got a LV. 1 for starters, which is expected. atk 1..."

"pfft, what a baby..." Red snickers,

"W-well, I wouldn't know how to anyways." You stutter,

"def 120..."

"WOWEE SUCH A HIGH DEFENSE, I SAY WITH A BIT OF TRAINING WE CAN RANK UP THOSE NUMBERS IN NO TIME," Papyrus proudly states. You rather not.

"here's the kicker...her HP's...50--"

"THAT'S NOT SO BAD, WHY WE SHOULD START TRAINING RIGHT AWAY---"

"...,376..."

"COME AGAIN BROTHER?" Papyrus scratches the top of his skull seemingly confused,

Everyone in the room just stares at sans,

"like i said, her HP's 50,376," Sans repeats clearly this time,

Papyrus and Red's eyelights zooms in to you, they both wear shock gazes in disbelief, jaws gaping wide open.

Which is quite cartoonish in a way given their appearances.

Frisk wore the same shocked expression, which made you clearly see her ruby red pupils.

Toriel has her paw-like hand covering her snout in quiet gasp.

"Oh my word," she gasps, clearly surprised. You thought she already checked on you, you wondered why she was shocked with all of this.

"Oh, w-what's wrong with it? Aren't uhh...HPs supposed to be like that? Is mine weird?" You ask,

"No, my child. It just caught us by surprise. It is quite a number, even a boss monster such as myself cannot reach that kind of number, and given with a low level as well... " She trails off,

"holy shit, you're a tank." Red spoke wildy breaking his stupor state,

Both Papyrus and Toriel chides his sudden curse,

Excuse me?

"A what?" You ask clarifying, "Also, boss monsters?" Turning to Toriel,

"They are the highest form of monsters of our kind, I myself am one," She states this as if it was completely obvious, guess she's still wrapping around the idea why your HP is higher than hers.

"What mom was trying to say is that she's basically one of the head honcho of monsters and you managed to outpower her HP" Frisk snides,

Now it's your turn be surprised.

"Yes, she's literally the Queen of all monsters," Grinning at the both of you.

"Frisk, hush now. That's not what I mean, I am just shocked from this new found information." A light dusting of pink peppered her white fur cheeks.

"Okay mom," Frisk snickers,

"Oh, I'm so sorry for my earlier behavior and manners Ma'am...uhh...Queen Toriel," You speak out bowing your head. No wonder she has that air around her.

"My dear please, there is no need to call me that, Toriel is just fine. No need for formalities," She smiles gently at you,

"Oh, alright, thank you. If I may ask, what do you mean when you said new found information, I remember during the encounter you checked me as well, right?" You ask curiously,

"Why yes I did, but unlike me, my "CHECK" option is quite limited, as do the other monsters, except for Sans. One of my friend's many talents and one of his main obligations as a judge to monsterkind." Toriel answers placing a hand onto sans shoulder,

Oh wow.

You turn to look at Sans who just winks at you lazily.

Well, that's quite impressive.

"INDEED IT IS," Papyrus cuts in

Did you say that out loud...?

"EVEN THOUGH MY BROTHER IS IN FACT LAZY, PARTICULARLY AROUND THE HOUSE,"

"thanks bro"

"HE IS A SKELETON WITH MANY USEFUL TALENTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO OUR KIND," He proudly states this,

Awww...how sweet,

"Oh, that's amazing." You smile and turn to look back at sans, which now had a blue glow around his cheeks.

"Is it normal for mages to know the HP of others then?" You turn your question to Frisk,

"Nope, can't see them myself. Why? Did you saw theirs?" Frisk shot back while looking at you curiously,

"Oh, uhhh....yes I did actually," Answering truthfully,

Toriel and Sans both looked surprised. Sans was sweating quite profusely now that you look at him closely.

"I "CHECK"ed Toriel when she asked me to and I saw a text saying "HP 440...Bonus Stat Check,"

"Oh dear, what else have you seen?" Toriel asks,

"Just that," you answer.

"you saw mine?" San quickly adds,

You turn to look at Sans. You weren't expecting him to speak out like that.

Papyrus was now looking between you and his brother. Sweating a bit as well.

Strange...

You shake your head, "No, just Toriel's. I don't want to pry on others without their consent. I think the whole ordeal in using the option "CHECK" is quite invasive, especially if I didn't get the person's permission first."

You visibly saw both Papyrus and Sans sigh a bit of relief.

Red has that neutral look on you, while Toriel and Frisks seemes surprised at it.

"Well, that's quite nice of you to think so," Toriel release a pleased hum.

You shrug at that "I think it's just a normal."

Toriel looks content at your answer.

"well, she's green afterall so I guess that's a given." Red says slouching, nibbling a cookie.

"s' rare to see one though, especially in my wor--"

Sans coughed loudly patting his chest. You watch him closely, you weren't even aware that skeletons can choke.

"these cookies sure are good bro, you keep getting better and better at making them. can't help but downing a lot, heh..." Sans chuckles eyeing Red from the side,

"....oh, hehe...y-yeah, much better than my bro's for sure." Red sweats a bit and takes a handful of cookies, stuffing it in his mouth all at once.

"OH MY GOODNESS, BOTH OF YOU PLEASE SHOW SOME MANNERS! I KNOW THAT MY COOKING IS INFINETLY SUPERB AND SURPASSES EVERYONE HERE. BUT PLEASE, SHOW RESTRAIN! REGARDLESS IF IT IS FLATERRING!" Papyrus booming voice declares,

"Yes yes, way to tell them Papyrus," Toriel and Frisk merely chuckles at the whole exchange.

"Oh yeah, you're going to have a new roomie." Frisk brings their chair closer to you.

"Really?" You kinda get where this is going,

"Yep! Hi roomie!" They smile wide, opening their arms for effect.

"what?" Red sputters on a cookie,  
Papyrus tsks at him and pulls out rag to clean his spot on the table.

Sans just shrugs nonchalantly at this,

"Oh," is all you say,

"Yes! Isn't it awesome? Two mages in one house full of horny skellies,"

"What?" You ask incredously. Are you hearing them right?

All too suddenly the said skeletons are glowing, each sporting their own color.

"My child, can you please be a little more discreet in mentioning that." Toriel just facepalms at this,

"Uhh....what?" You ask again,

"They're all coming into heat soon," Frisk continues, "I'll be right here to be somewhat like a body guard between you and these boneheads." They giggle at this,

"I-I don't understand, why do I need a bodyguard for it?" you ask,

"The thing is, you kinda messed up their cycles. As what I heard from Sans and mom's discussion," They grin at this,

"Frisk!" Toriel chides,

"Oh no, oh gosh I'm so sorry...I didn't know, how did it happen?" You say, turning to look at them.

But they tend to ignore you,

Sans head sinks into his hoodie. Papyrus stands up and goes to the sink to clean out the dishes, the orange glow in his cheeks still present. While Red keeps on eating the cookie as if not hearing the conversation.

"What? It's true, right?" Frisk replies,

"Yes, but that's besides the point. I was going to tell our guest here in a more private setting and in a less than scandelous matter." Toriel's squints at Frisk, making Frisk shrug their shoulders.

"No better way than to tell her than in the present, as I always say." Frisk says,

Toriel just sighs at this, clearly not amused at Frisk's behavior.

"As I was saying, they tend to be aggresive and forward to their approaches when a mating partner is available." They wiggle their eyebrows,

You stare at them as if waiting for them to continue.

They sigh in frustration, since you're clearly not getting it.

"That's you by the way," they finally say, pointing in your direction.

"Me?" You say incredelous, blushing along with them.

"How?!" You ask, which sounded more like a squeak.

"You're ripe, fertile, the right age and has no partner. Especially when you're on heat. Perfect for mating!" They say this with such gusto, that clearly makes everyone in the room uncomfortable. Except for Red, which he's still eating up the last bits of the piled cookies.

"...I-I don't think I'm ready for that," You stutter, clearly embarrass on the whole ordeal. You don't even know how it will it work in the first place,

"Of course you're not, that's what I'm here for. To prevent that, other than trying to train you in using your magic," They smirk,

"How come I can't just ...uh...leave for a while so I won't be able to bother them," you reply,

"I'm afraid that is not possible at the moment my dear. You see, there are _issues_ with the monster kind and the current government delegates," She says this rubbing her temples, clearly stressed out.

"We are currently being monitored closely, especially us monarchs. And having a new found mage..." Toriel trails off, and looks to the side, "I think...it is best to not strain that thread of trust for now." She finally concludes.

"Oh, I see...I hope everything gets settled then, it must have been so stressful." You voice out, "Also, I'm sorry if you have to go out of your way to meet me with such a busy schedule."

"Oh, no trouble at all my dear, it is quite refreshing to get away from it all, even for just a moment and it is exciting to see another mage to be honest. Me and Frisk got excited to hear it from our friend here about you." Toriel replies, ruffling Frisk's hair affectionately.

"Gee, thanks mom." Frisk tries to swat their mom's hand away,

Toriel just chuckles at this action.

"But yes, It would be best if you stay put in this house for now. For you and everyone's protection." She says this with an apologetic look,

"I assure you, you are in capable hands. Regardless of what my friends will be experiencing for the following week. Frisk here will be right by your side." She finishes touching Frisk's shoulders lovingly.

"They won't be trying anything as long as I'm around," Frisk beams at this, "Ain't that right Sans?"

"sure kid, whatever you say." Sans replies with his laid back smile,

Red just grunts in annoyance, while Papyrus strides back to the table.

"NO WORRIES HUMAN! THIS WILL BE ONE MAGNIFICENT SLEEPOVER THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL EVER HOST!" He says this while striking a pose,

Well, you sure can't wait to see what unfolds this week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do heats even work for a skelly?
> 
> Check out my social media:  
> Kamiiireru - Twitter/Facebook/Instagram

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys will like this. Thank you for taking your time in reading this!
> 
> You can check me out in my pages down here:
> 
> Instagram: www.instagram.com/kamiiireru/  
> Facebook: www.facebook.com/kamiiireru/  
> Twitter: kamiiireru


End file.
